The Chaos Trials
by NoelAnderson
Summary: Chaos: The perfect word to describe my life thanks to my spoiled, delusional half-brother  He seems to think he awesome, as does the rest of the camp . Chaos is also a person, or a god to be exact. One that was thought to have faded away. But now he's back, and he expects me and 16 other campers to compete in a game for honor. Oh joy. The fates hate me.
1. How My Nightmare Began

I know pretty much every epic hero has a tragic, heartbreaking story, losing loved ones and dying horrible deaths themselves; all half-bloods do, but really? Come one! Even I didn't see this one coming! Do the fates hate me? Did I do something to offend them? Wait. I take that back. Apparently I've offended nearly every immortal deity at this point in my life. I guess I'm just destined to be one of those angst-y, loner type heroes, of whom are never truly understood, or even liked for that matter.

My life is show that is directed and scripted by those who hate my guts.

My life had been as perfect as it could have ever gotten. I had a loving mother and an understanding stepfather, an amazing girlfriend, awesome friends, and a great reputation. And then _he _showed up. He just came waltzing into camp one day, knowing his godly parentage, and acting as though he was all that, like it was _he_ who had saved the world.

I don't want to sound like a spoiled brat, claiming I'm not getting the attention I deserve, but this is really too far! I never liked it when a lot of focus was on me, but truthfully, after the second Titan war, I deserved a little of it. Brian O'Neil, my half brother, never did anything to help anyone, and yet he gets treated like he's Hercules himself! Brian couldn't save a goldfish. In fact, one time while we were playing capture the flag, he ran away like a little girl when a hellhound came bounding our way. He left me to fight it alone. Some hero. (Note the sarcasm)

Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I'll explain my story better so you know exactly what happened, and then you can decide who's a spoiled brat. It all started like this…

_**(Flashback)**_

It was just two days after the second Titan war, and the entire camp was exhausted. Many campers were still mourning the death of a friend or sibling, and the rest were recuperating, getting their energy back in case another fight broke out or a stray monster attacked. I was as happy as I could be, and I felt guilty about it. I shouldn't have felt happy when so many had just died.

The whole camp was still buzzing about Annabeth and I. The underwater kiss story had been very popular the past two campfires. I was actually going to meet up with Annabeth now. We were going to have a picnic at the beach.

Already the camp was filling back up with campers, many of them were new and many I just hadn't noticed before. As I headed to where Annabeth and I always met up, I looked around and once again was amazed at how perfect the camp still looked. That was our gift for helping the gods. They completely fixed any damage we sustained during the war.

I reached the tree by the edge of the woods that Annabeth and I had named our meeting spot and stood by it, patiently waiting for Annabeth to arrive.

My mother had wanted me to stay with her for a few days after the war, but I told her I couldn't. I was needed at camp. With all that was going on I felt that staying away from it all was too much like hiding. I needed to face all the death and the past and get onto the future. I was doing a pretty good job of that so far. As I said before, I'm pretty freaking happy.

I could hear quiet footsteps behind me, and I decided to let Annabeth think she was sneaking up on me if she wanted to. She got close to me and jumped on my back, laughing when I acted surprised.

"Hey Annabeth! I was wondering what was taking you so long." I greeted her happily as she clung to my neck and smiled into the back of my shirt.

"I was busy making us dinner. I want this date to be perfect. The sun will be setting as we sit on our beach blanket, the waves crashing in the background, and my delicious dinner to eat!" She whispered into my ear dreamily. The feeling of her breath on the back of my neck made me shutter and Annabeth giggled when she felt it.

She slid off my back and proudly held up the picnic basket she had packed. I peaked inside and whistled at the impressively made food inside.

"Wow, I didn't even know you could cook. Are you sure one of the Aphrodite kids didn't make this?" I teased her with a smirk. She scowled and punched me playfully in the arm. "Ow." I complained while I rubbed the spot, positive it would bruise.

"That's what you get for teasing me, Seaweed Brain." She winked and sprinted towards the beach with the basket in her arms. I gave a shout of protest and ran to catch up with her.

When I finally got close to her we were already running on sand, and I tackled her to the ground. The basket landed a safe distance away from us. Thankfully all the food stayed inside. As we tumbled down Annabeth moved so that she was on top of me. She grinned down at my face as her hair fell out of its usual ponytail.

"I win." She smirked triumphantly. I grinned back.

"Or not." I said deviously. I jerked my body to the side and she fell off me. We both laid in the sand laughing like crazy.

"It's always happier here when you're around." Annabeth commented contently as she snuggled into my side. I put my arm around her and pulled her even closer.

"I'm _always_ here when you're around, Wise Girl." I replied with an eyebrow raised.

Annabeth shifted uncomfortably beside me and cleared her throat.

"Yeah, sure." She said weakly.

I furrowed my eyebrows and looked down at her in confusion. Annabeth, sensing I was going to push further, sat up and started spreading out the blanket and sat down with a reassuring smile.

"Are you going to join me or not." She asked me. I got up and sat down by her, she rested her head on my shoulder and looked towards the sun.

"It really looks beautiful this time of day doesn't it?" she asked with a sigh.

"Yeah it does, but I don't think you should tell Apollo that he looks the best just before his sister comes out." I replied, mocking her by sighing as well. She laughed and sat back up, looking me in the face. She pulled her knees to her chest and held them there with her crossed arms.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked curiously. She gave an odd smile and shook her head.

"It's nothing you have to worry about Percy." She dismissed quickly.

I didn't like the way she was acting. Ever since the night after the Titian war she had been acting strange. I opened my mouth to question further, but before I could make a sound, I loud yell rang out all the way through the camp.

Annabeth and I looked at each other, then scrambled up from our cozy little spot on the beach and took off dashing towards where the yell had originated.

When we arrived at Thalia's tree, where the entire camp seemed to be, both of us pushed our way to the front of the crowd. The site that met our eyes was strange to say the least.

A boy with blonde hair and the same sea green eyes as mine was on his knees breathing heavily. He had an arrogant smirk on his face that reminded me of someone…

Anyway, he was bloody and his clothes were all torn up. Chiron was standing by him, an awed look on his face. When I saw why my mouth dropped open.

Not only was the same trident glowing over his head as had mine five years ago, but he had Luke's old sword, grasped in his grubby hands. Dust was disappearing all around him, telling me a monster had just been slayed.

"What are you doing with Luke's sword?" Annabeth asked in outrage, the first of us to react.

"It was given to me," the boy answered in a voice the grated on my nerves. "By a ghost after I killed a giant Cyclops like thing. A man gave it to me saying I was meant to do something great. That's all." He finished with a shrug.

Annabeth looked stumped, put when the words really registered, a slow smile spread across her face.

"Luke… he gave it to him." she whispered in excitement.

"Who is he?" I asked Chiron. Chiron's face cleared, and a proud smile took over his features. He looked at the kid like he was his own son.

"Hail," he cried out without acknowledging me. "Brian O'Neil, son of Poseidon!"

Everyone looked dumbstruck for a few minutes. Then everyone seemed to get really excited and they fell to their knees. Annabeth did so too, a longing look on her face. I stayed standing.

Brian couldn't of looked happier, a wicked smile on his face. I didn't like that look. No one just comes to Camp Half-Blood and get a reaction like this. They don't get respect like this so fast. Heck, _I _was treated with about as much respect as a cow when I was first claimed. Something was up with him, Brain O'Neil could not be trusted.

_**Three Days Later**_

Well I can say my first assumption of Brian is true. He is _not_ trustworthy. The little punk is my living nightmare.

He made it very clear he doesn't like me. He claims he's better than me, and walks around our cabin likes it's just his. He leaves his mess for me to clean, and everyone moons over him like he's a god himself. Already Poseidon's come to visit him, and I could hear them talking and laughing from outside our cabin. Hermes even came, since Brian was the last person to see Luke.

Annabeth couldn't seem to get enough of him. She clung to him like a lost puppy, and I couldn't stand it. He was too much like Luke and I knew that attracted her.

None of my friends have talked too much since he came. They just brush me off like I'm nothing to them and go hang out with Brian. It stings like crazy to see them all laughing happily with him, I seem to be completely forgotten by them.

Right now I was just aimlessly walking around the camp, since no one seemed to care about what I was doing.

As I walked by mine and Annabeth's meeting spot, the tree at the edge of the forest, I heard giggling and the unmistakable sound of kissing. I wasn't usually one to nose around… ok, I am, but anyway, I walked closer to see who it was and my heart almost stopped. There was Annabeth, pinned against a tree by Brian and they were making out.

I took a step backwards in disbelief and I stepped on a twig. Annabeth heard it and stopped kissing to see what it was. When she saw me her eyes widened and she pushed Brian away, quickly smoothing out her clothes and looking at me nervously. Brian looked pleased to have been found out.

"Annabeth… how could you?" I asked as my eyes teared up. I wasn't usually one to cry, but now I didn't care.

"Percy! It's not… it's just," she stumbled for something to say that sounded convincing, anything, but all that came out was a jumbled mess.

"Oh I know what it is." I growled out angrily.

"No, please Percy," she protested pleadingly.

"You were cheating on me with my sad excuse of a brother. After everything we've been through! I can't believe you Annabeth." I finished with a whisper. I turned on my heals before I could say anything else and ran away. As I got farther away, Brian called after me, "She wants a real man Prissy! I'm better than you and she sees that!"

I let out a yell of frustration, running faster than I ever thought possible. As I passed people they stared after me in confusion. I didn't care. I kept going on until I reached the big house. I stopped my impossibly fast stride and plunked down on the front steps, putting my hands over my face.

I stayed in that position until I heard clonking come up behind me several minutes later, Chiron had found me. I figured he heard what had happened and was coming to comfort me. Man was I wrong.

"Percy," he said with sadness in his voice. "I have some news for you."

I looked up at him, sure nothing could be as horrible as what I had just witnessed. The expression on his face said differently. His eyes were saddened, with a practiced kind of sympathy in them. Almost as though he'd expected my life to go up in flames the way it has. I suppose he did.

"What happened." I asked blankly, dreading the answer.

"Percy…" he trailed off. He voice was saturated with grief, but something about it seemed so fake, so plastic. I guess after living so long, nothing quite feels the same after a while.

"Juts spit it out!" I demanded, jumping up and glaring at him. I've had enough with acting and false allusions in my life. I wanted him to be straightforward.

"It's your parents." He told me, his face now as smooth as an untouched ponds surface. "They've been attacked. I believe it was the fault of a rouge group of demigods that gathered after the war. They wanted revenge. They have been taken care of, but I'm afraid your mother and stepfather didn't make it, my boy. They've died."

His eyes told me he was truly concerned for me. But I didn't care. I'd lost everything.

"Don't call me your boy. I'm nothing of yours, got it?" I practically screamed, clenched my teeth to keep from saying anymore. I needed to get away.

I once again turned on my heels and stormed away. Part of me died that day. I was never the same clueless, cheerful person again, which is understandable I guess…

/

So now you see and I hope you understand. Brian O'Neil is a spoiled brat. He took the _people _I loved most when I _needed_ them the most. It's a wonder I didn't fall into a deep depression and do something regretful.

Well, I suppose it isn't a wonder. I wasn't completely abandoned. There were a select few who stood by me and haven't left since. In a way, it's a good thing the whole incident happened (Keep in mind, I'm writing this all down to try and raise my spirits). I now know who my real friends are.

Grover, of course, never left me. He's a true friend. I don't see him often though because he's always away doing whatever it is he does to make the world a greener place. Clarisse and Chris are both great. I need the both of them to keep me grounded and sane. Their brutal honesty is what keeps me going, as shocking as it sounds (Though Clarisse is more brutal about it than Chris, I'm just saying. Chris is too nice to be to straight forward. Clarisse is just rubbing off on his. God help us all.).

Nico's around about half the time, but he's not the nicest person in the world, not the happiest. We usually end up fighting. He's like my little brother.

Conner is someone I can count on as well. Sadly I cant say them same for Travis. My brother didn't just tear about my world. He tore apart theirs as well. When they both took different sides; Conner on mine and Travis on Brian's, it broke their bond. They don't talk much anymore except to fight. I know its kills Conner.

Lacey, an Aphrodite girl, is a rather new friend I've made since Brian arrived. We bonded over out mutual annoyance in the way her sisters gush and fawn over Brian like he's Brad Pitt (Though I don't see the appeal there, Lacy does). We've been pretty close since then. She a bit younger, but age doesn't matter much here at Camp Half-Blood.

And of course there's Thalia. She would never turn on me. She's just barely ever at camp.

I was currently lying on my bed in my cabin, counting the cracks on the ceiling for about the twentieth time this month. There wasn't much to do when you wanted to avoid as many people at camp as possible.

A brunette haired girl appeared, hovering over my head.

"Get off your butt, Percy. You're totally depressing me right now. Do something proactive, 'kay? Lets go take a walk to Thalia's tree." Autumn, my little sister, demanded roughly. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention her? Well, she's pretty awesome.

"Get up!" She screamed, pushing me off the bed. She's awesome most of the time, at least.

"Ok, ok, I'm up." I relented, standing up and straightening my clothes.

"Good, now lets go." She smiled innocently at me, strutting out of our cabin.

She reminded me quite a lot of Thalia, a bit of rebel and dressed like a punk. You gotta love her.

"Kill me now." I groaned when the sun hit my vulnerable eyes. I haven't been outside in a few days.

Autumn rounded on me with wide eyes. Apparently she took my comment seriously. Most people can't take my jokes, I've been told. Everyone thinks I'm suicidal apparently.

"Don't talk like that Percy! I wouldn't be able to stand camp without you here. And besides, you're still needed here. The camp would fall apart without you." Autumn explained slowly, like she was talking to a child.

"Oh please," I scoffed. "The camp doesn't need me. They have Brian and Annabeth." I flinched at Annabeth's name. It still hurt to talk about her. She acted like she hated me now a days. That's why I haven't mentioned her to you guys yet.

"Oh please yourself, buddy! Annabeth and Brian haven't done anything for this camp! All they care about are images and reputation. You know there's still a camper that doesn't have a cabin? She has a room in the big house. I don't know her very well besides the fact she hates Camp Half-Blood. And for all we know that could partly be the reason she hates it here!" Autumn ranted angrily.

I started at her in shock. I didn't know about any camper that didn't have a cabin. Had I really been that out of it the past few months?

"Look Autumn, I'm already down enough right now, could we please change the subject?" I asked hopefully. Autumn flushed and nodded.

"Fine."

We walked towards Thalia's tree in silence, neither feeling like talking at the moment. As we got closer and caught sight of it, I noticed something strange. There was a man standing threateningly by the tree.

He had hair the same color as the night sky and eyes that glowed like distant stars. He was wearing a large black trench coat, a navy blue t-shirt, and khaki pants with combat boots. His skin was pale and his smirk all-knowing.

"Aututmn," I whispered urgently. "Go to Chiron and tell him we might have an intruder. Make sure he knows it's an emergency. Get the whole camp ready for a possible attack."

Autumn looked at me sharp eyes and nodded, she knew what to do. She ran back the we came. She was battle ready.

I looked back at the stranger and started walking to him. He looked at me and his smirk grew softer.

"Hello Percy Jackson." He greeted with a nod. He voice was smooth like silk. It had an instant calming affect on me.

"Hello…" I trailed off uncertainly.

"Ah, you want to know who I am, correct?" He asked, his smirk returning.

I nodded and tried to make my facial features hard and demanding, but something about him made it impossible. The air of authority around him was too strong.

"I," he stated. "Am Chaos, and I have come to speak with the twelve Olympian's."


	2. The Chaos Trial Participants

"_Hello Percy Jackson." He greeted with a nod._

_"Hello…" I trailed off uncertainly._

"_Ah, you want to know who I am, correct?" He asked, his smirk returning._

_I nodded and tried to make my facial features hard and demanding, but something about him made it impossible. The air of authority around him was too strong._

"_I," he stated. "Am Chaos, and I have come to speak with the twelve Olympian's."_

/

His words didn't register right away, and I sort of just stared at him like an idiot. How was I supposed to react to that? I heard of Chaos before, father of the universe and ruler of the void, but his story now a days was more like a legend. No one had seen him for thousands and thousands of years. Some people at camp didn't even believe he was real. And yet here he was. Standing before me looking like any other human, in a way. He just looked too perfect to be human is all.

He smiled widely at me, like he could read my thoughts. His teeth were a pearly white and almost seemed to glow. Everything about him was spectacular.

"Why should I believe what you're saying is true?" I asked as I got my wits about me again.

He took a step closer to me and put a hand on my shoulder. I hadn't let anyone do that since Brian arrived here at camp. It was something my dad did when he was proud of me, and I didn't want any reminders of that neglecter. I hadn't seen him in months. He was too busy preening Brian. Plus I just had this newfound problem with touching and personal space. But when Chaos did it, it felt comforting and calming. Something about this man felt right. I just knew I could trust him, and I barely ever trusted that quickly.

"Because I still see the hero in you," he replied mysteriously. "And pretty soon you'll see all the proof you need."

He looked back towards camp and I followed his gaze. Autumn had just reached Chiron and was talking to him furiously. Chiron looked up at us and his eyes grew hard, he was preparing himself internally for a battle. He turned from us and started shouting out orders to the campers. Dionysus was currently staying on Olympus so Chiron was completely in charge of us all. Not something I was ecstatic about. Every since the fateful day, I'd taken a bit of a shining to my sarcastic camp leader. He was better then Chiron, at least. The campers obeyed, grabbing their weapons and getting the younger children to a safer place. Chiron started galloping quickly towards us, he seemed worried for me. Touching. (Note the sarcasm)

Chaos removed his hand from my shoulder and took a step away from me. He seemed to know just what needed to be done to avoid bloodshed.

Chiron stopped his quick pace when he reached my side, stepping in front of me protectively. I sent him a venomous glare. So now he cares? Psh, please.

The rest of the camp came running after him, gathering behind us and watching the events going on, waiting for orders. Brian was glaring hatefully at me and Annabeth was ignoring me all together. For some strange reason she's mad at _me _for Thalia being mad at _her. _Thalia had been furious after she heard that Annabeth had cheated on me, and she claimed that Annabeth was no longer her friend. She said she hated backstabbers. Autumn came rushing to my side with a worried look on her face. Nico appeared by my side in a burst of shadows, making me jump out of my skin and almost shriek like a girl. I would never get used to that.

"What did you do _now_ water boy?" Autumn asked acidly, punching me in the side. Nico sniggered.

"Ah! That freaking hurts Autumn! I didn't do anything, ok? For once, I am completely innocent ." I replied angrily. "I just found this guy here.

"You're never fully innocent, Perce." Nico said as he rolled his eyes. I glared at him, effectively shutting him up. I have acquired a wicked glare

Autumn looked at me for several seconds before nodding her head to indicate that she believed me.

"What is your business here?" Chiron demanded in a bellowing voice. Chaos cocked an eyebrow and leaned back against Thalia's tree, a look on his face that said he was clearly amused.

"I wish to speak with the Olympians on a... touchy subject. There is need for great haste." Chaos said slowly, his voice drawling.

"Then go to Olympus! Not a camp for their children. I will not have you endanger my campers! The twelve Olympians barely ever give audience all together to anyone except on the summer and winter solstice." Chiron shouted at him, his voice carrying far. I could tell Chaos annoyed Chiron. Ha! Go Chaos!

"The matter on which I wish to speak to them about happens to be their children. And what better place to discuss demigods then at Camp Half-Blood?" Chaos asked with a smile.

"You will leave or we will have no choice but to fight you! The Olympians will not head your call! They do not come and go at the beck and whim of a mortal." Chiron replied.

Chaos pushed himself off the tree and started walking angrily over to Chiron, his posture was stiff and rigid. I hoped he punched the hypocritical pony.

"The Olympian's will come when I call them," Chaos whispered in Chiron's face viciously. I could still hear them from where I stood, and I was sure everyone else could too. It was hard to believe the kind man I had talked to only moments before could turn into this. It seems Chaos doesn't like Chiron anymore the Chiron likes him. "For I made the regions they rule over. I gave them their power, and I can take it back. Have you grown blind in your lengthened life? Can you not tell who I am? I. Rule. All."

"What are you talking about? No one has that much power." Clarisse exclaimed from inside the crowd behind us.

I looked at her and then to Chaos. I hoped he didn't hurt her for speaking out of turn. I didn't think he would, but then again, did I know him at all? He was so kind to me, and then he changed into a hard-hearted monster when speaking to Chiron (Not that I minded him being spoken to like that). I didn't want Clarisse injured.

Chaos just smirked at her.

"One being does." Chiron breathed in fear. His face was deathly pale and his eyes were wide with terror. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.

The campers looked around at each other in confusion. Autumn looked at me curiously.

"What is he talking about?" Autumn asked quietly. It wasn't everyday you saw your supposedly fearless leader shows _fear_.

"You'll see." I replied with a smirk. Autumn sneered at me and Nico raised an eyebrow in intrigue. "He'll probably tell the whole camp soon. Obviously Chiron figured it out."

At those words all three of us turned back to the two men standing tensely in front of each other. Chaos was looking at Chiron smugly. He seemed pleased with the reaction he was able to get out of him.

"How about we all congregate to the amphitheater? The campers will need to attend the audience." Chaos suggested, but his tone was anything but suggestive.

Chiron numbly nodded his head, his eyes still wide and face pale. Chaos smiled and started walking. The campers parted before he was even ten feet in front of them, giving him a wide path through the crowd. After he had passed them all Chiron followed after him and we all filed in after.

It must have looked strange, all of us following him like that. It kind of reminded me of a parade; a silent, hopelessly confused parade. Or perhaps a death march. Yeah, that a better description.

Most of the campers were giving Chaos extremely annoyed looks. He had interrupted their camp activities. Well they would have to suck it up. As Conner would tell them: build a bridge, and get over it!

Katie Garner, a daughter of Demeter, slowed her pace down until she was standing by my side. She nervously flipped her bangs to the side and clutched her hands together. She was one of the few campers that stayed completely neutral in the conflict between Brian and I. She was Switzerland, as she would say.

"Do you think there's going to be a fight?" She asked. Ever since the war, everyone was reluctant to fight. I mean, really, really fight. As in, to the death.

I looked her in the eyes and saw she was scared. Katie was a warrior, but anyone could see the danger in Chaos, even not knowing who he is. She knew if there was a fight we would loose. She's smart like that.

"Chao-I mean, the man just said he wanted to talk with the Olympians. I'm sure nothing will happen to cause a fight." I reassured her quickly. Truthfully I wasn't sure. Obviously what Chaos wanted to talk about had to do with us. I just hoped he would leave the kids like Katie out of whatever it is.

**/**

Twenty minutes later all of Camp Half-Blood was seated in the stands of the amphitheater. Nico sat on my left and Katie on my right, while Autumn sat in front of us. She understood that Katie needed comfort. Autumn was a strong girl. She liked being independent, she didn't need my, or anyone else's comfort. Chaos stood in the center of the arena looking somewhat pleased. He was standing and waiting patiently for... something. After a few minutes he held his hand up and we all grew silent, waiting for him to say or do something.

"Olympians!" He shouted in a voice that shook the ground. The stone that made up the theater trembled and the younger children cowered into the sides of those sitting next to them. Even the older campers looked nervous. "I call you here, to Camp Half-Blood, to give an audience with your superior! I, who have been dormant in my works and actions for so long, demand you assemble and hear my words! I CALL UPON YOU NOW!"

His voice was hard and hypnotic, loud and carrying. The wind picked up drastically until the force was that of a tropical storm. It seemed to be drawn towards Chaos, swirling around him like a miniature hurricane. The air around him grew dark and black, and what looked like a void whirled around the arena. It looked almost like a tornado was forming. The dark air took shape and then it looked like thick smoke, churning and roiling. The smoke zapped with energy and red lightning crackled inside it. It kept on growing with more and more power.

Then, there was one loud resounding BOOM and suddenly bickering voices could be heard from inside the lightning streaked smoke. Chaos smirked and made a hand motion like he was opening a curtain and the smoke drew away like a scroll opening and it evaporated into the air. As it cleared, the twelve beings that made up the Olympians became visible. They were at human heights and looked confused and outraged.

"Who dares summon me?" Zeus bellowed angrily. He looked murderous. Athena, with her blonde curly hair and gray eyes, shot him a warning glare and put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

Poseidon was looking around the amphitheater at the campers sitting down. When his eyes landed on Brian he smiled pride fully. I scowled and slinked down lower in my seat.

"Do you not remember me?" Chaos asked snidely. "I met you when you were but a godling. A rather thoughtless young fellow, you were."

Zeus snarled and turned to him, ready to kill, but when he saw Chaos a look of awe crossed over his face and he sunk slowly to his knees.

"YOU! But… I mean… so long," the king of the gods didn't seem to know what to say. He struggled to form a single syllable.

The entirety of the theater seemed dumbstruck. The king of Olympus caught off guard? It was unheard of! Oh how sweet this moment was. For me at least.

"Ah yes, you do remember me," Chaos sighed. "And here I thought you were slow."

Ares growled low in his throat. He took out a long knife and started sharpening it threateningly. "Are you just going to let this punk talk to you like that?" he asked Zeus with narrowed eyes.

"Yes he was rather rude. And his fashion sense is horrific." Aphrodite agreed, looking at Chaos with distaste.

"Stupid he must be

To talk to Pops like that

He will surely pay," Apollo earned a sharp hit to the head from Artemis the second the haiku was finished. She looked exasperated.

"Really sweetie, you need to put him in his place." Hera huffed and crossed her arms. She sounded like a nagging wife – which is what she was.

"SILENCE!" Zeus shouted hastily. He looked nervously at Chaos, but Chaos just looked amused. "We must regard him with her rightfully earned respect." Every word was ground out. He seemed to hate every word he said.

"What kind of respect is his rightfully?" Dionysus asked, annoyed.

Athena, who had been looking thoughtful throughout the strange conversation, suddenly gasped. She fell to the ground.

"Lord Chaos!" she exclaimed, figuring out who he was. The whole theater froze. "Please forgive my family. They knew not who you are." She pleaded fearfully.

"Took you long enough." I muttered under my breath. I was getting irritated that all of our parents were acting like we weren't even there.

"That's Chaos?" Katie asked in shock.

"Chaos?" Hades questioned in amazement. "You have been gone for many years. Why appear now?"

"Ah, finally; the question I've been waiting for. I have been hearing things from my place of dwelling, things about certain demigods. Some things I do not believe to be true, and I wish to find them out for myself." He replied serenely.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Hephaestus asked him gruffly.

All of the Olympians took a step closer to him, their curiously getting the best of them.

"Apparently you believe your little heroes to be strong and fearless. I do not see it. At least not in the demigods you give praise to. I wish to hold a games. One where demigods prove their bravery and strength. I want to know who is really deserving of praise." He explained in a voice that said he would not take no for any answer.

"You do not believe in our judging's? Do you not think we know who is deserving and who is not?" Zeus said, his outrage getting the best of _him_.

"No, I do not. I want the proof I seek, and you will not keep me from gaining it." Chaos replied matter of factly.

Zeus seethed quietly and Athena quickly intervened before anyone could be killed, stepping in front of her father and speaking with Chaos herself.

"What would these games consist of, and how would it be chosen who will participate?" she questioned hesitantly.

"I will be choosing the trials the games consist of, and as for choosing; right now, at this moment, we will pick names lotto style. Yes, I have adapted to modern times myself. For all twelve of you Olympians, one child will be chosen to participate, and several different children of minor gods will be chosen as well." Chaos told us, all of us, in a loud voice. "You, Zeus , may choose from the raffling, but I have one condition: Percy Jackson must participate, no matter what."

All heads turned to me in surprise. I gulped nervously and Chaos motioned for me to come down and stand next to him. I stood up and walked as quietly as I could to him. My father was staring at me in confusion.

"We shall choose now, and every child chosen will came down and stand by my right side. They will then be transported to a secure location where they will stay for the remainder of the games, only visiting the camp after every trial." He said slowly. Brian was practically breathing fire with anger and jealousy, Annabeth looked like she was questioning Chaos's sanity, and even Travis Stoll looked taken aback. Conner seemed happy for me. Why though? I have no idea.

Chaos waved his hand and a huge stone bowl appeared in front of Zeus. Zeus nodded that he accepted Chaos's offer and stood up to it.

"For Zeus, the children participating are as follows," Chaos said, motioning for Zeus to pull a name out of the bowl. I saw Alexia, the girl Zeus claimed only weeks ago, looking ashen faced and terrified. She was the only child of Zeus at the camp. Thalia would not be chosen since she was a hunter.

"Alexia Morgenstern! The first demigod chosen by raffle to participate the Chaos Trials! Congratulations."

Alexia stood on obviously shaky legs and walked noisily down the steps. Moving until she was by my side. She was sixteen years old, and had dark black hair that reached her lower back and was straight with a little wave at the end. She had her bangs held back with an electric blue colored clip. She seemed like the kind of person that could stand well in a fight, but was just having too much placed on her in a short amount of time.

"For Poseidon, besides Percy Jackson, since I chose him," Zeus pulled out another name. "Brian O'Neil!"

Brian swaggered his way down the steps confidently. People cheered for him and he smiled like he had already won.

"For Hades… Nico de Angelo!"

Nico looked at me and nodded like he was glad he would be there with me. He smiled (Rather shocking me, truly. He usually just smirks. That the closest I've seen to s mile until now) and walked to my other side, beside Chaos.

"For Dionysus… Ryder Hunt!"

Ryder had skater styled hair that was jet black. The way he walked was defiant and playful at the same time. He didn't seen too concerned about being chosen. I guess he was a carefree kind of guy. That could get him killed, but who am I to judge.

"For Apollo… Will Solace!"

Will beamed and walked down to the rest of us. I didn't know were he stood between Brain and I, so I regarded him suspiciously. I think Lacy was friends with him, and she had good instincts. I guess I would find out for myself.

Thinking of Lacy, I scanned the crowd for her. She was sitting with her siblings. She caught my gaze and gave me a shaky thumbs up. I could tell she was worried.

"For Artemis…" everyone go quiet. Artemis didn't have any kids, did she? She was a maiden goddess. Artemis shifted nervously. "Fallon Hunt!"

Fallon had arrived at camp a few weeks ago, and had yet to be claimed. I guess that was pointless now. She walked down and I looked over at Artemis. She was smiling shamelessly. Fallon stood, resilient to the endless amount of eyes on her. I think she already knew who her mother was before this.

"For Hermes… Travis Stoll!"

I cringed.

Why couldn't it have been Conner?

Travis skipped down and stood proudly next to Brian, who put his arm around his shoulders. I wanted to punch them both so badly. Conner watched on, helplessly.

"For Athena… Kellyn Plateia!"

Kellyn was pretty new. I'D only seen him once before. He had blue eyes and dark blonde hair, with bangs that covered his right eyes constantly. It seemed pretty annoying to me. But since when did anyone care what I thought?

"For Ares… Clarisse la Rue!"

Clarisse gave Chris a parting kiss (Which she somehow managed to make look not-mushy, as surprising as it sounds) and came down as well. She smirked at me and leaned over to whisper, "Don't think I'm going to go easy on your 'cause we're friends. I'll still beat you to a pulp if I need to ta win."

"Obviously." I said with a returning smile. Some people never change.

"For Aphrodite… Drew Tanaka!" (A/N: I checked! That's her real last name :D)

Drew was the leader of the Aphrodite cabin now that Selena was gone. She was a dictator, Lacy said. I didn't like her one bit. While Annabeth and I had been dating, she tried to seduce me. When that didn't work, she went to Brian and become his crony. Then Annabeth and I broke up, Annabeth hooked up with Brian and Drew moved on to the next most popular guy she could get her claws on. She still sided with Brian though.

"For Demeter… Alexander Madison!"

Alex had blonde hair that reached his shoulders and a pair of neon green, bottle cap glasses on. He seemed hopelessly lost and graceless. I pitied him. Maybe he would let me train him.

"For Hephaestus… Jake Mason!"

Jake hasn't had much luck since Beckendorf died. I hoped he didn't accidently kill himself walking down the stairs. He made it down ok, but he did trip and skid down a few steps. He was the Hephaestus cabin leader. Some people think the position is now cursed since Beckendorf dies.

"And now for the minor gods," Chaos continued. The whole theater was tense. Zeus seemed tired of pulling out names, but he didn't say anything. No one knew what to expect from the games, so people were getting nervous.

"The children chosen are… Callista Snigurka; daughter of Khinoe! Annie Quaid; daughter of Nike! And Butch Rallis; son of Iris!"

All of them stood up. Callista came down with her head held high and a hold, stony look in her eyes. She was ice cold, you could easily tell. Cold in the way your enemies usually were. She wore a while flow-y dress that emphasized her pale skin and her black hair. She walked with an assassin's grace. She didn't like me or Brian. She hated everyone. She even told me so once. She was an unnerving person, and I knew I had to keep and eye on her.

Butch was a huge, buff dude with cropped blonde hair and a rainbow tattooed on his arm. He was friends with Annabeth, therefore an enemy of mine. He walked down the steps with stiff movements, like he was marching was an army faction, and not by himself in an amphitheater.

Annie had long, pale blonde hair. It was almost white, and she had it pulled back into a loose braid, the shorter hairs framing and swirling around her face like a snowstorm. Her eyes were a startling dark blue, like a newborn babies. Only they'd never changed color. She had a knife strapped to her side that had a red glowing hawk design on the side. I knew if I'd touched it, I'd get burned. It didn't seem to hurt her, though. She moved her shoulders oddly, like she was shifting something on her back. I cocked and eyebrow curiously. Odd.

Once she was standing by the rest of us, Chaos held his hands out towards us.

"Everyone, meet the participants of The Chaos Trials!"

**A/N: Keep in mind, this is un-beta-ed.**


	3. Family Controversy

At first the hall was dead quiet, it was as if no one were there. They all sat still, unsure of how to react. Then, out of the blue, one of the campers stood up and started clapping like crazy, cheering for us. I guess one person was all everyone needed to snap them out of their trances, because then _everyone_ was standing up and cheering. No one knew what to expect from the days to come but they seemed pumped about it. This was something new and exciting, something different.

Clarisse punched my shoulder and pumped her other fist in the air, clearly living in the moment. She was smirking in anticipation.

Alexia took the electric blue hair clip out of her hair and it morphed into a celestial bronze sword. She gripped it tightly in her hand like she was afraid someone would snatch it from her.

Autumn was looking at me with wide, but emotionless eyes. She was scared, but didn't know how to show it. Autumn was afraid I would end up leaving her, just like her mother, who had gone missing so many years ago. She was afraid I would die. As I said before, no one knows what to expect from these games. For all we know we could be forced to fight to the death! I hate the unknown.

Nico put his arm around my shoulder, nudging me slightly; silently asking if I was ok. I gave him a reassuring smile and returned the gesture. He cackled and pushed me off him, knocking me to the ground.

"Don't be going soft on me, Jackson!" He shouted gleefully. He gave me one last chortle before running off into the crowd to find Conner' they'd both gotten pretty close over the last few weeks.

Nico was a weirdo.

Will grinned at me and offered a hand to help me up. I accepted with a grateful smile.

"Thanks." I said.

Will shrugged.

"It's no problem. Now's a great time to start making allies, isn't it." He hinted with a simper. I nodded in agreement. You could never have enough allies.

I looked over at some of the other participants. Drew was absently twirling her hair with her finger, not a care in the world. Her unresponsiveness to the situation at hand bugged me. Will was now cheering along with the rest of the crowd along with with Jake and Ryder. I'm not surprised they get along well. They're all kind of similar. Brian was basking in the glory, Travis by his side. I eyed them resentfully.

Callista was already making it very clear she wanted nothing to do with any of us. She glared venomously at anyone who dared get within four feet of her. Fallon was inching towards Artemis, obviously hoping to get to talk to her. Alex looked awkward standing on his own and Annie looked peeved.

I turned my attention back to Chaos.

"Ok," Chaos yelled to quiet the crowd down. Everyone stopped cheering and sat back down in their seats. "The participants have ten minutes to talk with their parent or friends, and then I will transport them to the safe house. If you have something to say to them, say it now, for you will not be able to speak to them until after the first trial."

Autumn and Katie came bounding over to me as soon as he finished talking.

"My gosh Percy, can you believe this?" Katie said in awe. She leaned in and gave me a quick hug. "Please promise me you'll try and stay safe. Don't get yourself hurt."

"Yeah water boy, watch yourself out there." Autumn agreed with worry in her voice.

"Oh, am I hearing this right? Has the great Autumn McLacey actually let herself _worry_ about me?" I teased playfully. Autumn glared and flicked me roughly on the forehead.

"Don't push it, Jackson." She threatened in a low voice.

Katie looked between the two of us in amusement.

"Well , I hate to get between your little sibling spat, but I've got to go and talk with Alex. His is my brother, after all. And I'm cabin leader. So he'll need my words of wisdom." Katie teased us both, walking off in the direction of Alex Madison.

The three kids of the minor gods were talking with their friends, since their parents weren't there (Something that was bound to piss off Nike and Khinoe. Iris was a lover, not a fighter, so she probably wont mind so much). Callista's friends were all scary looking. I didn't know most of them. Annie was talking with Elli Sprig, a young Eris girl. The children of Eris didn't have many friends (Their mother _is_ the goddess of discord) so I was guessing Annie had taken Elli under her wing. I liked her just a bit more now.

Many people were still staring at Fallon in amazement. Apollo was talking with his sister in a happy and cheerful manor. He seemed happy to finally be an uncle of a child of his twin sister. He obviously wasn't perturbed by the news. Will seemed to get along with him well. Fallon seemed pretty happy, and I suspected it was because she had been claimed... in a way. Even if she already knew Artemis was her mother. She had a cabin to herself now.

Nico was talking to his dad in hushed tones. They seemed to be arguing.

Drew was speaking to her mother happily. They were probably both sharing stories of all the hearts they'd broken and people they've messed with. I didn't like either of them. Just the way Drew's smiled was lop-sided and always sort of seducing, and the way Aphrodite had no qualms about messing with Annabeth and I, I could look at them.

Jake Mason was with his father. Hephaestus looked as odd as always in his own deformed way, but he was a guy I liked. He seemed kind of homey and he never did anything to suggest he disliked me. He was also the most humble of the gods. He and Jake were having an easy conversation.

Kellyn didn't appear to get along with Athena all that well. Athena spoke harshly to him, like she would soldiers before they went to battle. This wasn't the time for that! He needed his mothers comfort, not her battle strategies! I suppose that's Athena for you though. Annabeth tried to come over and say goodbye to him, act like they were all super close, but Kellyn flipped her off sand walked away from her and their mother. Annabeth stood there, unsure of what to do. I absolutely loved it! Kellyn was definitely alright in my book.

Mr. D and Ryder ignored each other completely. I knew they didn't get along, so no surprise there.

Hermes was doing the best with his kid, playfully pushing him and letting Travis tell him about his camp lives. He was the most fatherly of the Olympians. Travis seemed ecstatic to see him and was talking quite a lot. It was times like these that he seemed his old self again. It made me feel almost nostalgic. I wish we were on friendlier terms.

Someone cleared their throat behind me, trying to get my attention. Autumn tensed up at my side. I turned around slowly, braced for the worst. Only the worst could get a reaction like that out of Autumn. And trust me, it was the worst. There, standing just a few feet away, stood old seaweed breath himself, shifting his weight nervously as he looked at me. I felt my face fall, erasing itself of any and all emotion. I resented this man with every fiber of my being. I would not let him know what I was feeling.

"Father." I said coldly, nodding my head ever so slightly. Poseidon beamed at me.

"Hello there, Percy! It sure has been a while hasn't it? Those games are certainly surprising, I must say. Who would have thought Chaos would return after all this time? Although it's not surprising he picked you to participate, hero of Olympus and all that." He said cheerfully. Brian stood at his side, practically shooting sparks at me with his eyes.

"I haven't been the hero of Olympus for some time now _father_," I spat his name like it left a bad taste in my mouth, "But of course you wouldn't have known that. You haven't even had time to let you own daughter know that you know she exists! Autumn probably feels like you don't care about her. Oh, but that's right, you don't! all you care about is your precious little Brian O'Neil. Well I've got news for you, Pops! Brian hasn't done crap to help anybody! He's no hero, he couldn't save a fly for goodness sake!" by the time I had finished my little rant I was breathless. Poseidon appeared shocked.

"I'm still much better then you'll ever be." Brian stated confidently. Autumn lunged at him and I had to physically hold her back as she threw her fists in his direction.

"You've got nothing on Percy, you blubbering idiot!" she shouted nastily, her eyes seeming to glow.

"Autumn McLacey!" Poseidon yelled in his thundering voice. Autumn visibly flinched and wilted against me. Her eyes were wide and hurt. She seemed distraught. Wouldn't you be if the first thing you father said to you was in anger?

If I hadn't been holding her I would have punched Poseidon myself.

"You have no right to speak to her like that after your abandonment. Autumn and I would have understood if you were too busy for _all_ of us, but you spoke to Brian so much it was almost disgusting." I sneered. "What is he? Your new girlfriend? I'm pretty sure that's what's called incest now a days, and it's downright nasty."

Autumn started laughing like crazy and I heard Nico snicker behind me. I jumped away from his. I hated his disappearing/appearing acts. I looked back at my father.

Poseidon's nostrils flared in outrage and he took a threatening step forward, looking like he was going to evaporate me or turn me into a seahorse. Ok, I admit I was a bit afraid now. Note to self: keep your thoughts_ inside_ your head if they could anger a god, even a horrid one.

Chaos stepped between the two of us, coming out of now where. He glared at my father warningly.

"No hurting my participants, kelp-for-brains." He said with a disapproving click of his tongue. "Your ten minutes are up! All those taking place in the Chaos Trials must gather around me now."

All of the campers chosen gathered around him in a circle, even those who were nervous or didn't want to participate. They knew they had no choice. Chaos smirked and held one hand above his head.

"The fight for honor is just beginning. Let us see who is deserving of praise and who is deceiving everyone, including their selves. Let us see who the real heroes are!" With the last word he yelled something in a foreign language and we all disappeared in a swirl of black… air I guess you could say. It didn't have the density to be called smoke, and yet it was visible enough for us all to see. Almost like it was a piece of outer space, and the endless void the resided there.

And then we were no longer standing in Camp Half-Bloods amphitheater.

We were inside a huge room, shaped like a circle. The walls were rounded but the ceiling was flat. In the center of the room was an sunken living room with an indoor fireplace and several plush purple couches surrounded it with a myriad of different colored blankets draped over them.

Off to the right side of the room was what looked to be a training center. Mats were placed on the ground and some weights were sitting on a stand near them. A punching bag hung from the ceiling and a treadmill stood by the music speakers. All along the wall were beds with a curtain that could be pulled over to give privacy. They were pretty much _inside_ the wall, so they didn't take up any space. And on another side of the room was a kitchen with a fridge, oven, microwave, cabinets and all the works. Apparently they expected us to cook.

"This is where you'll be staying. You will be watched always and need to be prepared for the trial, which will take place tomorrow. Have fun and don't kill each other." Chaos was gone before any of us could ask any questions, leaving us in an awkward silence.

"So that's it? No instructions, no clues, no _anything_? Yeah, 'cause that's really fair." Callista growled, annoyed.

"Yeah, well life's not fair sweetheart." Butch said matter of factly, walking over to the couches and letting himself fall into one of them.

Everyone dispersed, moving around the spacious room to explore a little. Ryder Hunt and Jake Mason went over to where a giant TV was to see if they could find any games and controllers. Alexia went over to one of the beds and sat down on it, closing the curtain. She was a loner, I guess. Or maybe she just didn't like the situation. Clarisse went over to the kitchen and opened the fringe, looking inside it. Kellyn walked over to the huge oak desk by a window that over looked absolutely nothing, and started going over plans. For what? I have no idea. Maybe it's just a practice stuff. I've never fully understood Athena kids, even having dated Annabeth.

Annie and Fallon sulked off into their own little corners to be alone. Nico went with Alex and Drew over to the campfire to get in started, and Brian and Travis both took out hidden bottles of booze (not doubt given to them by some Dionysus kids).

I sighed and ruffled my hair. This experience would certainly be interesting. I walked over to where Fallon was leaning against a wall, near a door that I would imagine lead to the bathroom. I sat down beside her. She slid down the wall to sit next to me.

"Hey, Jackson." She said quietly.

"How long had you known?" I asked her seriously. She knew immediately what I was talking about.

"Since before I came to camp." She replied.

"Huh." I huffed, dumbfounded. I had not expected that. Barely anyone knew who there godly parent were before coming to camp. "How did that happen?"

Fallon was quiet for a moment.

"I had a pretty hard life. I made some questionable decisions and paid the price. My mom helped me out of a bad time. She saved my life. Then she sent me to camp. I've always sort of known, though." She said with a sad smile.

"Why are you trusting me with all of this?" I asked curiously. Its not like we were close or anything. I barely knew her!

"I know all about you, Percy. You're a good guy. I can trust you with this information. I think your one of the few decent guys left, or so my mother has said." She winked. "When a men-hating goddess compliments a boy, you tend to remember."

I grinned at her.

"I'm just that awesome." I joked. She laughed and nudged me.

"Sure, sure." She rolled her eyes. "Are you worried – about the trials, I mean?"

I looked her in the eyes. She was afraid, like Autumn.

"No," I shook my head. "I think I trust Chaos. He won't let us die or get hurt. Or _too_ hurt, really. Fatally injured. He won't let us get fatally injured."

"You think so, Prissy?" Clarisse asked, coming up to us with an apple in her hand. She looked incredulous. Clarisse was always paranoid.

"Yes, I do." I glared at her.

She sneered at me.

"I think your too trusting." She huffed.

"Think what you want." I shrugged. Fallon laughed quietly beside me.

"What's so funny, punk?" Clarisse asked angrily, her teeth clenched.

"Your both quite amusing. It's like watching an old married couple fight." Fallon snickered.

"I have a boyfriend." Clarisse shrieked. "And Prissy wouldn't make a suitable husband for anything but a donkey!"

She stomped away, gaining a few glances from the others, but no one said anything. Everyone knew what Clarisse was like in one of her moods.

"Be careful." I warned Fallon. "Clarisse isn't someone you want as an enemy."

"I'll be the judge of that." Fallon smirked.

Oh joy. We're all going to kill each other.


	4. A Dummies Guide To Catching A Griffin

The next morning everyone got up before the sun rose. No one had eaten the day before out of nervousness and it looked like if anyone tried to eat now they would throw it all back up. I hoped after the first trial, and after we knew what could be expected out of these games, things would get better. We just sat around in an awkward silence. No one wanted to even try and start up a conversation. We just got lost in our morbid thoughts.

I was thinking about what winning this could mean for me. I honestly couldn't see it making that much of a difference. If I gained back any love or friendship from winning that would mean they only loved me for my status, and I didn't want that, not ever again. Sometimes that's why I think Annabeth pretended to like me, if she was pretending. Which is the only scenario that makes sense in my mind. Why else would she string me along like that?

My father and I would never have a relationship like we had when I was twelve and until I was sixteen. I just couldn't ever see that working, after everything he'd done, or really, everything he hadn't done. Autumn was a tough person, that much everyone knew, but that didn't mean she's invincible. After her mother's 'mysterious' death, she really needed a parental figures comfort, but all she had was me, and that was years later! I heard her cry at night, if only for a minute. I knew Poseidon had hurt her.

"Uuuhhh, this is so agonizing!" Travis cried out randomly. "Why doesn't he just show up already? We're all ready here Chaos dude! Please come and end our suffering!"

"Would you shut up, puke face? He'll come when he's ready." Clarisse sneered in annoyance. "Besides, there are a lot of different ways to interpret that plea." She smiled a blood-thirsty smile.

"Do my ears deceive me? Is a daughter of Ares actually being patient? I'd thought I'd never see the day! And who knew you brainless gladiators had any wisdom? I'm so shocked it's not even funny." Nico exclaimed in mock surprise.

"Watch it, shadow boy, or else I'll punch your pretty face in." She warned threateningly.

"I'm terrified." Nico said in a bored voice, examining his fingernails. Clarisse jumped up from her seat on one of the couches and stood in a rigged stance, her posture telling us she was dying to run him through with his sword. Alexia stood also, taking off her barrette and holding her knife, getting into a fighting stance ready to counter act any possible attack. Clarisse and Nico never got along. There was a reason I didn't hang out with them at the same time.

"You little-"

Clarisse was cut off when a zapping sound filled the air. A breeze picked up in the room and a tiny little tornado made of flames appeared just over the fire pit, in the middle of where all of us sat. Chaos stepped out and smiled dazzlingly.

"Now, now, my champions, this is not the time to fight. Save that for the trial! I trust you have all eaten a nutritious breakfast? Because you're going to need it where you're going." He said mysteriously. The joking twinkle in his eyes suggested he knew none of us had. "No matter, after a while you'll all get used to the nerves before a trail. After this first trial you will have two days to prepare for the next and to heal."

Alexia raised her hand nervously. Drew snickered at the action.

"Yes, Ms. Morgenstern?" Chaos asked amusedly.

"Um, mister Chaos sir, you mentioned before that you wanted to find the demigods that were deserving of praise, does that mean after all these trials there will be a winner, and how will the winner be chosen?" She asked hesitantly.

"Ah, good questions Ms. Morgenstern. To answer your first one, yes there will be a winner, there could be more than one even. And to answer your second question, each trial will have a winner, and that winner will get a certain amount of points. For every trial there are one hundred points to be won, but if the winner has any assistance in any way, the points shall be slightly divided. The person or persons that helped will get a small portion of them, or even an equal amount, depending on how much they helped. Does that make sense?" He asked once he was finished. Everyone nodded excitedly.

"So we gonna get to the action now? 'Cause I can't stand staying here any longer with these losers." Butch said glaringly. His fingers twitched in anticipation of a fight. He was so different from his mother.

"Patience, my student. The trial shall come soon. Does anyone else have any questions?" Chaos asked the rest of us.

"I do," Will said, standing up. "Can we… die in these games?" Jake nodded behind him. He wanted to know that too.

"No, I will not allow that to happen. The only possible way for you to die in my trials is by pure stupidity. I may not want you die and I may do everything to try and prevent it, but there is always a way for it to happen, even on my watch." He explained monotonously. Will nodded and sat back down.

"I have a question." Annie said in a hard voice. She stayed sitting and even crossed her arms. "If we don't want to be here can we leave?"

"No. any other questions?"

"Figures," Annie muttered under her breath.

"Yeah, I've got one." Drew said alluringly, her voice always had a seducing quality to it. "What happens if you get mortally wounded, or just wounded in general?"

Chaos nodded. "Another good question. If you are mortally wounded I will transport you out of the area and to the medical cabin at Camp Half-Blood. But I must warn you, the first person in every trial that needs to be transported out of the area the trial is taking place in, will be eliminated from participating with the rest of the trials, unless you do it purposely." He added when Annie eyes lit up. "And if you have any minor injuries you will be able to be treated after the trial is over. Understood? Good, now everyone gather around and the trial shall begin."

"Wait, wait! I've got a question!" Brian yelled in outrage, he'd had his hand up for quite some time.

"I will not answer any questions you have, mister O'Neil. Now get over here before I fry you." Chaos threatened menacingly. I laughed loudly at Brian's expression and he shot me a hateful glare.

We all went over to him, and before we could even grab a hold of him, we were gone.

I knew the way we were traveling was different from the last time, because it felt different. It was like being squeezed through a puny little tube. A sense of claustrophobia overcame me and I began to feel sick.

Just as I thought I was going to puke, we touched down on solid ground. Or really, I touched down on solid ground. When I was able to get my bearings about me I realized I was all alone… in the middle of what seemed to be a jungle.

The foliage in front of me was thick and the plants exotic. I turned around in a quick circle, absorbing my surroundings. I was beginning to feel frazzled when a whispery voice filled my mind.

"_The first Chaos Trial has begun, you are all currently standing separated in a ten mile radius circle in the Amazon jungle. The goal of this trial is to find and capture the only living griffin left after the first Titian War. Once you have it secured, you must find a way to send up some kind of flair into the sky to alert myself and the other participants to your whereabouts. You do not want one of your opponents to find the griffin before you do. Let the games begin!" _Chaos's wispy voice disappeared after the last word had been uttered, and I knew I should get moving.

I took off sprinting in the direction of the foliage, uncapping Riptide as I went. Once it was at its full length I was able to run at my fastest. Whenever I trained running wise I ran with Riptide since I would have to run with it during a battle, that way I would be prepared. Right now I was glad I had.

I sliced through the large leaves and bushes, making a path for me. As I got farther into the jungle I started slowing down. Why the heck was I running? I had no idea where I was going. For all I knew I could be going in the wrong direction. I stopped completely and sighed.

I looked up and saw the branches from the trees zigzagging each other, obscuring any light from reaching to my level. I nodded my head making my decision.

The branches for the trees didn't start growing until about ten feet above me, so I took Riptide above my head and jammed it into the trees trunk. Once I was positive it was in there really good, I got a firm grip on the handle and pulled myself up with all my strength. I swung a little to the side and kicked hard off of the tree right next to it, enabling myself to push my body up so that my arms were straight and Riptide was at my waist. I pulled one of my legs up and put my foot on Riptide, pushing up with all my lower body strength and grabbing the first branch I saw. Just as my hands curled around it Riptide fell out of the trees trunk. I crawled onto the branch and continued on up the tree one branch at a time.

The jungle was full of dangerous animals and insects, and twice I almost grabbed onto these huge, poisonous looking spiders. Just before I did I spotted them and quickly pulled away as they hissed at me. I didn't know spiders _hissed. _Creepy little buggers.

The bark on the trees here were rough and parts of it broke off and stuck into my skin. As I got closer to my destination I climbed faster, wanting to get out of the darn tree. When I finally got close enough to the top to see over the leaves and branches I stood tall on a sturdy branch and looked out over the treetops. The view was absolutely beautiful. I could tell it was still pretty early in the morning because the sky was painted with hues of pink and orange and the light from the sun was weak on my face. The jungle seemed to stretch on for miles, and it probably did. Chaos mentioned that we were all in a ten miles radius of each other in a giant circle, so most likely the griffin was somewhere near the middle.

I watched the trees closely, looking for any clues as to where the feathered monster might be. My eyes widened when I saw all the trees moving about five miles away, yeah, you could see that far when standing on the top of a tree in the Amazon jungle. It looked almost like one of the scenes in The Jurassic Park, when you could tell a dinosaur was coming because all of the birds flew away from the trees they had been on. It was just like that, I could tell that something big was making the trees move. That was where the griffin was. Why does this seem like it is way too easy? Oh right, because it is! There has to be some kind of a catch.

I growled in irritation. Should I try and find it using the information I just found out? Was it some kind of trap? Should I even bother, or just run around like a headless chicken? I shook my head to clear my mind, which was still kind of fuzzy from sleep. I sighed once again and started making my way back to the jungle floor.

When I was about twenty feet away from where I would have jumped down, I heard the sound of incoming footsteps. I cursed silently. Riptide was still on the ground and whoever was coming would know I was nearby.

I stayed where I was. I would do me no good to try and grab Riptide now. I prayed they would just pass by it without seeing it.

As they footsteps grew closer, I heard another set coming from the exact opposite location, most likely the two people closest to me in the circle.

One person came through the foliage and I held my breath so they couldn't hear me. I saw who it was, Callista, daughter of Khinoe. At the same time the other person entered into the little clearing. It was Drew Tanaka and she looked pissed.

Both girls stood still for a minute, not seeming to know what to do. Callista spoke first.

"Perseus Jackson has been here." She said coldly, looking down at my sword.

"Why do you care?" Drew asked suspiciously. For some strange reason, it seems like girls seem to assume other girls are their enemies in situations like this. At least girls like Drew, who was bound to be intimidated by the fact the Callista was almost as beautiful as she was. Drew was just like that.

"Jackson is one of the biggest opponents at the moment, his brother couldn't save his own life, let alone anyone else's. I want him eliminated." Callista replied with a smirk.

"Why are you telling me?" Drew said.

"To see if we could form a possible alliance." Callista raised her chin confidently and put her hands on her hips.

"Ha, please, you're the last person I would form an alliance with. You're the exact kind of person I dislike." Drew said with a short laugh and a sneer.

"Shame." Callista said examining her nails. Then before Drew knew what was happening Callista charged her. She ran so fast she was all but a blur. She grabbed Drew's shoulders and Drew cried out in pain. She grew stiff and her skin turned blue. Callista let her go and she fell to the ground in the same position she had been in while standing. "You could have been a valuable asset, oh well. It's your loss."

She gave a shrill laugh and ran away on silent feet. I wondered if she had made so much noise before on purpose. I stayed completely still until I was positive she was far away. I then jumped down from the tree and grabbed Riptide, running over to Drew. I tried to grad her hand and pull it to me so I could feel for a pulse, but her arm would not budge. Her skin was freezing and I could barely feel any movement beneath her skin, but there was still a weak pulse, her skin felt warmer by the second. Callista had frozen her. I jumped away from Drew in shock.

From what I knew Callista had never shown that ability before at camp.

I looked back at the direction Callista had run off in and decided to try to find the griffin where I thought I saw it from the tree.

/

It turns out trying to find a specific destination in the Amazon jungle is a lot harder then I originally had thought. I suppose that's the catch. Four hours later and I was no closer to finding it then I had been in the beginning. I lazily hacked at the foliage in front of me, the muscles in my arm felt like they were on fire.

I _thought_ I was going in the right direction, but I couldn't be sure unless I climbed up another tree, and that was exhausting. It zapped too much energy, so I had only done it three times. Right now I knew climbing a tree and using that much energy wasn't a good idea.

I wish I had eaten breakfast.

With all my training you would think I would have more stamina, but something about this place seemed to drain everything you have. Something I soon realized after I really started moving. I felt this strange feeling of lethargy I usually only ever felt after a day in the amphitheater dueling with the Ares kids for hours on end. Like walking through warm soup.

I had evaded several other participants already, and came face to face with one. Fallon was the daughter of Artemis and an amazing tracker, I was guessing she would win, and one time we ran right into each other, literally. I got into a fighting stance, prepared for the fight I thought was inevitable, but Fallon just smiled and was on her way. I guess the talk I had with her last night really made a difference. I admit I felt like I had some kind of alliance with her too, it just didn't apply to this challenge.

I was snapped out of my thoughts abruptly when the sound of rustling leaves reached my ears, I quickly jumped behind some bushes to hide.

Annie came stomping out of nowhere, dragging something roughly behind her. She had her usual glare positioned on her face and several painful looking gashes on her arms that seemed to have come from a sword fight of some sort. The thing she was dragging gave a cry of protest and I realized it was a person, Alex Madison to be exact.

"Would you please stop dragging me?" he asked in exasperation.

"No, 'cause then you'd just slow us down." She snapped at him. I shifted in surprise. She seemed to be helping him, not trying to kill him. Shocking, truly, for a half-blood.

Annie stiffened when I moved and let Alex's arm go. She turned in my direction and grinned.

"Come out Jackson, I know your there! I don't want to fight you." She called out. I hesitating, but came out anyway.

When Annie saw me she raised an eyebrow, Alex was too busy leaning against a tree trying to catch his breath to notice me.

"You look like you haven't gotten into a fight yet." Annie commented in confusion.

"I haven't really yet, but I've been in the trees a lot. What happened to you?" I asked, coming over to her and looking at her arms. For some reason I trusted her, whether it be because of her befriending that Eris kid, or her willingness to help Alex I don't know, but I did.

Annie cringed and held on of her arms out to look at.

"I found Alex getting beaten badly by Brian and Butch, who've formed an alliance by the way, and I intervened. They didn't take too kindly to that. I was able to surprise them though. I pinned Butch to a tree with one of my throwing knives and kneed Brian in the nuts. I think I did them more damage then they did me, but I still got hurt pretty bad." She explained as Alex stared to become more aware of what was going on around him.

"She really saved me, but now she won't let me leave!" He exclaimed in irritation.

Annie growled and before I could stop her she threw one of her hidden knives at him, it embedded itself into the tree behind Alex right by his ear. He gave a terrified squeak.

"That's why, garden boy! You can't defend yourself. I'm trying to help you!" She yelled at him acidly.

I looked at him calculatingly. He was a scrawny kid, looking as though he hadn't worked a day in his life. A lot of Demeter kids were like that though. Not all of them were warriors like Katie, most preferred to work in the gardens instead of train.

"I agree with Annie." I told him and he glowered at me.

"See, Chaos's golden boy agrees with me." Annie smirked, crossing her arms.

"Hey!" I protested with an annoyed countenance. "I am nobodies golden boy. That's Brian's job."

"True," Annie agreed, nodding her head. "No are you coming with Alex and I or not? I don't know about you, but I've worked out that this challenge is nearly impossible to win unless you've got help. It's hard enough just to find this stupid griffin, it's going to be a heck of a lot harder to capture it! And I'll happily give you all the credit or points or whatever for doing it. I just want out of this darn jungle!"

"I second that." Alex added weakly.

I looked at the two of them for a few minutes. I thought Annie was right, it would be impossible to catch this griffin on my own. I would need help, and Annie and Alex were just the kind of people I would want by my side.

"I'm in." I said confidently.

"Thank goodness! Please keep that she-demon away from me!" Alex exclaimed, grabbing on to arm and staring at Annie with fear in his eyes. Annie rolled her eyes and started off in the direction I had been going before.

"Let's move it people!" she shouted behind her shoulder.

/

"Don't let her touch you Annie! She'll be able to freeze you like just like she did Drew!" I shouted desperately to Annie as she ducked just in time to evade one of Callista's ice arrows.

"Thanks for the tip, captain obvious." She said sarcastically, doing a backwards summersault to dodge another myriad of icy arrows. "Now just focus on your own fight!"

Just as she said that I swerved to the side as Butch took another swipe at me with one of his daggers. He had one in both hands and was disappearing every few minutes to surprise me. He could blend in with his background, apparently this was a skill of an Iris kid.

I already had a long cut on my cheek and Butch had a gash on his side from Riptide.

Annie, Alex, and I were currently in the middle of a fight, in case you hadn't noticed. It turns out a lot of people had made alliances and Callista, Travis Stoll, and Butch No-Last-Name (Seriously, no one knows his last name!), were just a few of them. We had been on the same trail and the second Callista spotted us, she gave the order to attack. Annie took on Callista, Butch came at me, and Travis went after Alex. Brian was a apart of their little posse, but he was nowhere to be found. Of course he disappears when a fight starts.

At the moment Alex had Travis tried to a tree with wild vines he'd grown with his abilities, but Travis was cutting through them with a sickle he'd acquired somehow. Alex was yelling, 'the tree, your harming the tree! Murderer!' at the top of his lungs while he did this funny dance, waving his hands and jumping back and forth.

"Give it up Jackson! We're going to win and you know it." Butch said with an evil grin.

"In your dreams rainbow boy." I sneered back. His face immediately grew angered and he let out a cry of rage, charging at me.

I jumped into the air and pushed off of a tree, cart wheeling to the side. That was a trick Annie had shown me a few hours ago. We'd been searching together for at least seven hours. It was beginning to feel endless. Annie had tried to teach Alex something, but he'd failed. Epically. If the situation weren't so dire, I would have busted out laughing again at the memory.

Annie got closer to Callista, every once in a while taking a swipe at her with one of her knives, but Callista was too far away for her to hit and she couldn't find the chance to throw one at her without accidently killing her. Callista smiled devilishly as one of her arrows hit Annie in the arm, but it faltered when Annie didn't scream. She just flinched and pulled it out as it stared bleeding.

"I will kill you **_cyka_**!" Callista yelled angrily, saying some word in Russian.

"Please!" Annie scoffed as she grabbed one of the arrows out of the air just before it hurt her. "I'm too good for that."

"Try to hit her with one of your throwing knives!" I yelled to her hurriedly. Alex would probably need her help soon.

"I _tried_ and it didn't _work_." She shouted back.

"Ok, no need to get snappy." I replied.

Butch was getting impatient, I could tell by his increase in jabs. I was getting tired and hoped I would last long enough to beat him.

"You're a stubborn little bugger aren't you?" I asked him with a smirk.

"I won't stop until you're out of the game." He commented icily.

"But the whole point of the game is to catch the griffin!" I exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah, and I'll kill that too once I get a hold of it." He said with a dark kind of glee. I frowned at him. That's pretty messed up.

"That's it!" Annie growled angrily. "I can't take you any more_, princess_!"

She ran at Callista, sliding underneath her spread legs and turned, catching Callista's foot with hers, making the other girl fall. Once Callista was on the ground Annie grabbed her bow from her and both girls jumped back up. Callista looked outraged.

"Give it back!" she demanded in a frigid voice.

"Come and get 'em." Annie taunted. Callista made a grab for them and Annie hit her with the side of her opened hand in the nape of her elbow. Callista cried out in pain and Annie did the same to the side of her forehead, knocking her out.

"What did you do?" I asked in shock.

"Pressure points." She said simply, running over to Alex, who was getting chocked by Travis.

"You ready to die Jackson?" Butch asked me grimly. When did he get so dang violent?

"Not quite yet." I replied hitting him in the side with Riptide again.

"That stupid griffin isn't worth this!" Donovan cried, as he grunted in pain.

A strange _caw_-ing sound came out of the forest next to us, and the next second a large being came crashing towards us, attacking Butch and pinning him to the ground.

The griffin stood over him, appearing to be angry. The monster looked just like you'd expect, with the head and wings of an eagle and body of a lion. It's feathers were a golden color, just like it's fur, and it kept cocking it's head like any bird did while it stood still. It cried out again, leaning closer to Butch, scaring him to death.

"Get off me you freak!" he yelled desperately. The griffin seemed to scowl, if that was possible, and it reared back, hitting Butch hard in the head with one of its paws, knocking him out cold.

"Whoa." I said, staring at the monster with a healthy feeling of fear. It turned to me and advanced.

"Percy!" Annie yelled, coming over quickly with Alex following after. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the griffin. Her eyes grew wide with awe.

"Wow." She breathed out happily. "That's one sexy beast." She said with a teasing grin. I looked at her like she was insane.

The griffin _cawed_ again, but this time it seemed happy. It made to leave, but Annie yelled and it stopped.

"Don't run." she said pleadingly. The griffin cocked its head once again. "We can help each other."

"Why are you talking to it?" I asked her nervously.

"_SHE_ got angry when Butch called her stupid, so she has to understand us. Not all mythical creatures are stupid you know." She replied coldly.

"Ok, ok, be my guest go talk to the monster." I said, putting my hands up in defense. She glared at me and walked confidently over to the griffin, no fear in her stride. Alex caught up to me just as she started talking to it… her.

"What is she doing? Does she have a death wish?" he asked in an exasperated voice.

Annie actually spoke with it for a while, and even petted it once. The griffin seemed to like her. When she returned the griffin came with her.

"Flair has agreed to help us. We don't have to 'capture' her. She will just stay here while we signal Chaos so she can stop being hunted and we can go eat and sleep." Annie told us proudly.

"Flair?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yup, that's her name." Annie replied happily, putting a hand on Flair's head as the griffin nuzzled her.

"Oookaaay. That's not strange at all. Anyway, how are we supposed to signal Chaos? He never said how." I asked Alex and Annie.

"Chaos didn't want to tell us how, he expected us to be creative." Annie said like it was obvious.

"Well I got nothing, how about you Flair?" I asked sarcastically and the griffin bristled at my tone.

"No need to be rude." Annie scolded.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes this coming from _you."_

"Hey, hey. Stop that guys, I think I may have an idea. Wait here." Alex said quickly, disappearing into the forest.

"He's a twitchy little wood nymph isn't he?" Annie asked rhetorically.

Only seconds later Alex returned with a strange looking plant in his arms. It was the size of a basketball and purple, with little, yellow hairy lumps on it.

"What is that?" I asked him, a look of disgust on my face.

"It's a Lepatus, a mythical plant that grows in exotic places such as this. Not many people know about it. If the air pressure changes even the slightest bit, it explodes like a firework. I saw it while we were walking before, but didn't think much of it." He said excitedly.

He handed the fruit to Annie before she could say anything about it and strung a bunch of long, strong leaves between two trees. Annie looked dumbfounded.

"Give it here." He said to Annie. She handed it to him and he put it in the leaves, pulling back and releasing it like a slingshot. It went flying into the air, exploding once it was about one hundred feet up in burst of purple color.

Flair jumped and hid behind Annie, while Annie laughed at the action.

"Aren't you a cute little griffin?" She cooed.

"Yes, she is rather cute, isn't she?" a voice asked behind us. We all whirled around and saw Chaos standing behind us. Alex squealed in surprise and Annie cocked an eyebrow. "Good job Flair, you may go now."

"You know her?" Annie asked in shock. Chaos nodded and Flair looked at Annie with a look of longing before taking off into the sky. "I'm going to miss her.'

"Of course I know her. I asked her to help me with this challenge." He said with amusement in his voice.

"Can we please leave this hell hole now?" Alex asked desperately, falling at the man's feet. "I can't take it anymore!"

"Of course, young champion! You _have _just won my first trial!" Chaos exclaimed happily. Alex looked at him in shock… and fainted.


	5. Boitatá's and Lobisomem's

**Annabeth's POV**

I've never seen the gods so agitated and excited all at the same time. You could tell they didn't exactly like Chaos, but respected him; and that they didn't necessarily appreciate the situation we were all in, but embraced it. They were contradicting themselves way too often and it was giving me a headache. I was on edge, as was everybody else. The gods had never stayed at Camp for such a long period of time and they didn't seem to want to leave anytime soon.

The reason for that probably was the fact that they could watch their kids from the hill here at Camp Half-Blood, and couldn't at Mount Olympus. The kids that were currently stuck in the Amazon, that it. We were all watching. It was like a sick version of a reality TV show.

Chaos, being the all-powerful being he is, was able to conjure up an Iris message as big as a screen in a movie theater, and it was situated just so everyone could see perfectly if sitting atop Half-Blood Hill. The focus right now was on Percy and his little gang. Ugh. I can't stand him. Not anymore at least. I may have loved him at one point, but not anymore. I loved Brian now, for my own reasons.

The focus changed frequently while we watched, as the competition had been going on for _hours._ At the moment we could see that Nike girl dodging Callista's ice arrows.

Most of the campers sat with their cabin members, although a few sat with friends from many different cabins. The gods sat separated from us all, in spectacular thrones. My mother's was the only practical one, suitable for outdoor sitting. I rolled my eyes at my Aunts' and Uncles' ridiculousness.

I sat with my cabin, as expected, but truly I was routing for Brian. He was my boyfriend. Besides, a lot of people were routing for Brian, and he only had two cabin mates, both of which hates his guts and one of which was participating in the Trials as well.

Speaking of Brian's sister, she sat with her few friends off to the side on a blanket. Katie Gardner was with her, as well as Chris Rodrigues, Conner Stoll, and a few others.

Thalia was even there. Of course Artemis's hunters had to come to Came when she did. I glared at the spiky haired girl. I would never forgive her for slapping me. Although I do admit I'm surprised she didn't just punch me. Thalia wasn't a girly girl and punching was more her style. I suppose she did care about me just a little. If she had punched me, I probably would have broken my nose. It doesn't matter. I still hate her.

I was sitting by my brother Malcolm and my little sister Plural Kames. I didn't know whom Plural was routing for, but Malcolm was routing for Kellyn, Athena to the last. I might have routed for him if Brian wasn't participating.

"They've barely even shown Brian." I huffed angrily as Chaos appeared on the Iris message, talking to Percy and his friends. The geeky Demeter kid fainted, causing many of us to snicker or laugh.

Yeah," Plural agreed. "Chaos only showed him on the Iris message once and all we saw was him getting tangled in a bunch of wild vines. He got _so_ frustrated. I thought his head was going to explode!" She laughed and looked back at the screen.

Plural was only eight years old. She was pretty new to the camp and reminded me a lot of myself when I was younger. She had Athena's signature curly blonde hair, but her eyes were brown instead of grey. She was adorable, and I wanted nothing more than to strangle her at the moment.

"Brian's doing an amazing job." I said hotly to her. She looked at me with wide eyes. I had never spoken to her like this before. "Don't talk about him like that. He's amazing!"

"I'm sorry?" Plural said like a question. Her chubby cheeks quivered as she tried not to cry at my harsh tone. She sniffed a little, but I didn't let her cuteness get to me.

"You should be." I replied, looking back at the Iris message.

I glared angrily at it when Percy's goofy face appeared, filling up the Iris message as he grinned at Chaos. I'll admit that I hadn't seen him smile like that in months. Ever since we broke up, at least. I didn't care if he was happy or not, though. He was so rude and venomous to Brian; it pissed me off enough that I didn't give a flying flip if his life was miserable. I do feel bad about his mother though. She was a nice woman.

Chaos said something once again (After announcing that Percy and his friends had won, and making that dorky kid faint), so I zeroed in on his voice instead of Percy's face. Because I was staring hatefully! Don't get the wrong idea.

"I suppose you would all like to return to Camp now and get all healed up, yes?" He asked Percy and company. Butch, Callista, and Travis were still out cold. I had hoped one of them would get a good punch in while fighting Percy, but sadly he was barely injured. The Quaid girl was worse off than him.

Butch was a good friend of mine. I'm quite glad he teamed up with Brian, even if they did loose him. Just before the fight that had taken place only minutes ago, Brian had gotten separated from them and caught in the foliage. Hence Plurals earlier comment.

"Not really." Annie Quaid said bluntly. "I'm not exactly a big fan of the jackass in charge of the place."

Conner and Thalia cracked up from where they sat, along with a few other campers. Chiron looked greatly bothered by her comment.

"Oh well." Chaos replied cheerfully, waving his hand. They all disappeared from the Iris message and it evaporated, sending a few drops of water on a few of us sitting near it.

The next second all sixteen participants were scattered all around is in disgruntled heaps. Some were lying on the ground and others were standing in fighting positions as though waiting for a strike. They all looked dazed. Chaos stood at the center of them all.

The Olympians stood up from their thrones and approached him along with Chiron. Chaos stopped them with a wave of his hand. He had one freaking powerful hand.

"Before these young heroes are treated, I must give out the points earned this Trial." He proclaimed regally. He stood taller and looked own at all of us, although it was unnecessary since we were all still sitting.

"For not only capturing the griffin," he started, "but also for having the sense to befriend her, Annie Quaid; daughter of Nike, has earned 24 points. For his knowledge and assistance with the making of the flair to alert me to their location, Alexander Madison; son of Demeter, has earned 24 points. For his stealth and assistance in both formerly stated accomplishments, Percy Jackson; son of Poseidon, has earned 24 points.

"For his ambitious search and success in finding the griffin, Butch Rallis; son of Iris, has earned 8 points. For her determination and fighting tactics, Callista Snigurka; daughter of Khinoe, had earned 8 points. For his assistance in finding the griffin, Travis Stoll; son of Hermes, has earned 6 points. And last but not least, Fallon Hunt; daughter of Artemis, ahs earned 6 points for her devotion and loyalty to her beliefs.

"I wish you all a good day. I will return for the participants to bring them back to the safe house later on today. Enjoy your time here at Camp while you can." And with those last words he disappeared.

I looked over each participant, looking for one person specifically. When I saw him I smiled widely.

"Brian." I yelled happily as I spotted him. He was getting up from his spot on the ground.

I ran to him, going right past Percy as he helped the Quaid girl to her feet.

Apparently she'd lost a substantial amount of blood from the knife wounds she'd obtained and was dizzy and disoriented. I bumped into them as I went by, causing Percy to loose his grip on the girl, which amounted to her falling back to the ground, irritating her aforementioned wounds.

I heard her give a pained cry but ignored it. I hadn't bumped into Percy on purpose, but what was done was done. She'd been healed soon anyway.

"Brian!" I cried again as I tackled him in a hug. I lifted my head to give him a kiss but he picked me up and put me down a few feet away from him.

"I'm not in the mood, Anna." He said in an angry voice, the only thing softening the statement being his nickname for me.

I looked at him, the hurt in my eyes not much different from the emotion in Plurals not that long ago. Percy had never spoken to me like that, even when he was mad. He would push it aside for me.

"You did great out there." I said, trying to salvage the situation.

"No I didn't. I failed! I got lost and it caused me the Trial. My _brother_ won. What does that tell you? That I did horrible, that's what it tells you." He ranted, his hand flying in the air comically. I was glad most of the campers had gone to help their cabin participants and no one could hear Brian's meltdown.

"I-" I stopped. Did I want to do this?

"What?" Brian asked.

I was going to do it. I didn't care about Percy anyway.

"I'll tell you something that will give you the upper hand if you run into him during a Trial." I stated nervously.

Brian smirked happily. "Go on."

/

**Percy's POV**

I cursed Annabeth a thousand times in my head as I helped Annie back to her feet. Darn the blonde to Tartarus! Did she really have to bump into me? Her fight wasn't with Annie and that's whom she hurt. Annie's eyes were glazed over and her cuts were bleeding profusely.

"Are you ok, Annie?" I asked her worriedly. From what I could tell she needed to see a medic right away. Her face was looking green and she had a strange smile on her face.

"No, I wanna go to Wendy's." she whined as she leaned heavily on me. "I'm hungry!"

despite the circumstances I cracked a smile. She stumbled a few steps and I picked her up bridal style so I could her some much needed help faster. She protested, but I ignored her.

"Hey Jack!" I called as we neared the temporary first aid tent the Apollo kids had set up. I boy with bleach blonde hair and piercing green eyes looked up from what he was doing. When he saw Annie in my arms he ran over to give me a hand with her.

"I'll take her." He said worriedly.

"No, I've got it. Just tell me where I should set her down." I replied, smirking a little when I saw irritation flare in his eyes.

"Put her down right here." He instructed when we were under the tent and near the cots that had been set up.

Alex had already been placed on one, and he now looked as though he were just sleeping as snores were coming from his wide-open mouth and drool was dripping down his chin.

I put Annie down next to him and Jack sat looked her over to assess the damage.

"Ugh, no! Not you." Annie slurred tiredly. Jack frowned but didn't stop his work.

"Why, 'not him'" I whispered to her when he'd gone to get some gauze.

"He doesn't leave me alone! When I first came to camp he was in charge of showing me around and ever since he won't bugger off." She grunted while glowering.

I laughed softly at her and she wacked me with surprising strength for an injured girl.

"Well, he's in charge of you now, too. I'll be back in a little while to check on you and Alex. Have fun." I smirked at her as I walked away and Jack returned.

"Don't leave me with him alone!" She screamed after me and could hear Jack's barking laugh as I continued on.

"Bye Jackie!" I called to him as he retuned my smirk. Annie groaned and plunked her head back on the cot hard. I laughed again.

I wanted to go find Autumn and maybe Lacy. Most likely Clarisse and Chris were busy with each other, but I might get a chance to talk to Nico before we both had to leave again with Chaos.

As I walked over to my cabin, I saw Annabeth and Brian whispering to one another. When Brian caught my gaze he smirked devilishly. I glared at the two of them. Whatever it was they were talking about, it would most likely make me miserable. They seemed to enjoy making me miserable.

I accidentally walked into someone – as I had not been paying attention to were I was walking while looking and the two of them – and I snapped back to reality. I was about to apologize, but my words were cut off by a bone crushing, breath stealing hug.

I coughed and struggled in the grip.

"Thalia," I wheezed. "I cant breath."

"Oh!" she smirked at me. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget how fragile you are now that your invulnerability has been revoked." She pushed away from me.

I smiled impishly as I rubbed my now sore arms.

"It's been a while, Pinecone Face." I said happily. She grinned and, putting an arm around my shoulders, we started walking again.

"Yeah, it has. But we'll be staying at Camp until this whole Trial thing is over, so we'll be seeing each other a lot, even if your only going to be here less than half the time. We'll probably stay even after it's all done and over. Artemis is pretty ecstatic her secret is out, and she wants time to spend with Fallon." She said with a snort.

"I'll admit, I did not see that coming." She said quietly as she looked over where Fallon stood with her mother.

"No one did." I snickered.

She rolled her eyes and punched my shoulder.

"Ow, woman! Would you stop that? You've slaughtered my arms enough." I teased her, faking immense pain.

"Such a chick." Thalia said under her breath.

I huffed, insulted. Before I could say anything though, Nico had me in a headlock, ruffling my air.

"Congrats on the win, bro." He laughed darkly, releasing his hold.

I stood up and straightened my hair, glaring at him. He smirked in reply.

"That was _so_ not fair." Clarisse said as she came up by Nico. "You had it so much easier than we did, that how you won! I beginning to really not like that Chaos dude." She grumbled.

"Be careful what you say, the walls have ears." I warned her lightly. She stuck her tough out at me. Mature.

"But honesty," she continued. Thalia rolled her eyes and Nico looked bored. "you only ran into other campers. It's like you somehow avoided all the monsters. I don't get. When Nico and I bumped into each other and decided to ally for the Trial, it was like we were monster magnets."

I looked at Nico mouthing, 'you allied with Clarisse?' he just shrugged nonchalantly in reply.

"We were both attacked by a_ Boitata._ Do you know what that is?" Clarisse growled at me. "I snake of fire that attacks people and only eats their _eyes._ The thing was huge and nearly impossible to kill. I probably could have handled it if Nico hadn't been there though." She sniffed.

"Oh please!" Nico yelled, outraged. "You would have been slaughtered if I hadn't been there. You're lucky we allied for the Trial."

"I would have been fine." Clarisse insisted stubbornly.

"Don't you have a boyfriend to annoy?" Nico said as his eyes grew black with anger.

I watched them both silently. Perhaps Annie, Alex, and I did avoid the worst of the challenge. No wonder we on.

"I'm going to go see Autumn." I whispered to Thalia as the two continues to bicker. She nodded and watched, waiting for an opportunity to break them up.

I walked quietly away. Nico and Clarisse had never gotten along well before, but now I think they enjoy fighting. Sometimes its entertaining to watch, and other times it's just annoying. Like now, definitely on the more annoying side.

I went to Poseidon's cabin, and sure enough, Autumn was there with Lacy.

Lacy had dirty blonde hair always pulled into pigtails and lipstick red glasses. She had green braces and a great smile. She got picked on quite a lot in her cabin, but I'm not sure why. She just wasn't the typical type of beautiful, but she was beautiful. The stuffy Aphrodite girls just couldn't see that.

I wasn't surprised Lacy wasn't with Drew, since Drew was the worst.

"Hey guys." I said. They both turned to me.

"Percy!" Autumn yelled happily, hugging me tightly.

"Hi Perce." Lacy greeted.

"You did great out there, Water Boy! I'm so proud." Autumn teased, wiping at tears that weren't there. "you're way more resourceful than I ever gave you credit for."

"Yeah, well, you never could quite grasp the entirety of my awesomeness." I said with my hands on my hips.

Lacy giggled and gave me a one arms hug.

"It was fun watching you guys, though. I loved the chemistry between you and your alliance. It was hilarious watching Annie trying to teach Alex how to fight when you guys took that break. And when you accidently kicked her and she looked like she was going to murder you. _Priceless._" Lacy said with a smile

"Speaking of which," I said turning to Autumn. "Is Annie the camper that doesn't have a cabin?"

"Yeah. She stays on the big house." Autumn confirmed. I nodded grimly. It seems the gods broke their oath. Why doesn't Nike have a cabin, even if she only has one daughter?

I would get to the bottom of the matter. I was pretty sure Annie, Alex, and I would have a tight alliance for the rest f the trials, or at least I hoped so. I could sue some people on my side. Maybe it was only for one trial, but still. I hoped. They seems alright to me.

/

**Chiron's POV**

I watched my campers closely. After many years of training young demigods I was accustomed to reading their body language and facial expressions. I saw in the very beginning that young half-bloods tended to express their emotions differently than a normal human child would. They were more guarded, and more tightly wound among other things.

I was worried for the children being forced to participate in Chaos's sick game. I knew Chaos had ulterior motives, but I had yet to figure out what they were. I did not like being unprepared.

The gods had convened before the start of the first Trial. They were all afraid for their children as well. They could do nothing to prevent them from whatever was coming, though, as much as it frustrated them.

I saw Zeus as he ranted to Artemis about her unforeseen additive to the family. He was furious about the sudden appearance of her daughter, Fallon, and he was even angrier that Artemis broke her oath. He threatened to smite the child on the spot, but both Artemis and Apollo fought him on the subject and he eventually calmed down.

After all, he was in hot water already with the sudden appearance of _his_ daughter, Alexia. Hera was just as angry with him.

I went over to the first aid tent to see how the wounded were healing. Many were being treated, if even fore minor injuries.

I saw the son of Demeter, Alexander, sleeping peacefully on one of the cots. Nico de Angelo had just arrived to have salve put on some burns he had acquired from the _Boitata._ They weren't serious, but they would bother him for days if he didn't put the slave on them.

Drew Tanaka was flirting with one of the Apollo boys, Jack, while he bandaged a rather deep cut on her thigh, but Jack didn't seem effected by her in the least, I knew why, even if the other campers did not. Jack was enthralled by another camper already, so Drew's love magic was null on him.

Alexia was sitting patiently on a cot while an Apollo girl stitched up her arm where one of Callista Snigirka's arrows had sliced her. Jake mason, never one for having good luck, was bruised pretty badly from an encounter with a Black Panther.

I spotted Will Solace sitting near Alexia. He had protected her when they both bumped into each other the same time a _Lobisomem_, or rather an Amazon werewolf, stumbled upon the both of them. He had taken all the injuries from that battle. Luckily he was able to keep Alexia safe. I went to him with a warm smile.

"Hello, my boy." I greeted him in a throaty voice. He looked up at me and respectfully stood up, even when he swayed on his feet. I gestured for him to sit back down. He did as asked.

"Chiron." He greeted with a nod.

"You did very well today, helping Ms. Morgenstern out when she desperately needed you. That's a true hero, right there boy." I complimented proudly. He smiled and went back to rubbing the soreness out of his arm, where he had gotten a particularly hard punch.

Kellyn Plateia was out cold, but looking much better after having fallen into a raging river. He had been standing near a cliff edge when the ground gave out beneath his feet. It's a wonder he's still alive. Ryder Hunt was actually the one to have pulled him from the water. He was with his siblings, at the moment.

The last person under the tent was a camper that caused me constant trouble, Annie Quaid. I knew she hated Camp Half-Blood. She hated me as well, although I haven't a thought why.

She stayed in a room in the big house, because we have not had the time to build a house for Nike yet and therefore she had no cabin to go to. I was positive Nike had no idea about her daughter's predicament, or else she would be at my doorstep with hell to raise.

I watched silently as Jack came back over to her. He worked diligently, replacing her bandages and making sure the bleeding had stopped from her wounds. When he turned Annie over slightly to check for more cuts, Annie jerked awake and defensively punched Jack in the nose.

"What the heck?" Jack demanded angrily, but his eyes widened when he realized what he said. "I-I mean, I didn't – I'm sorr-"

"I don't like people touching my back." Annie said nervously, looking unrepentive for the punch she had just delivered. "It's like when people don't like having their feet touched, for their hands. Don't do it, again!"

"I won't." Jack said, his voice hinting on anger. He was getting frustrated with her again, as he always did when she was ornery.

"Children, there is no need to fight." I interjected fatherly. Annie turned and glared at me. She looked ready to kill.

"Stay out of it, you ignorant colt! Thank you, Jack, for healing my wounds, but I'm ok now. I'll be back later to get Alex." She said to the boy, ignoring me after the first comment. She then got up and left without another word.

Jack didn't seem to know whether to go after her or not.

"Why does she act like that?" I asked sadly. I suppose I could not reach every camper.

Jack sighed and then he too glared at me.

"Because," he said, his body tensing like he was about to let some secret loose. "You may not realize it, but many campers aren't as happy here as they should be. They're getting restless with you, and with the Olympians, much like they did prior to the war. There's an uprising stirring, and Annie's just the only one not afraid to show exactly what she feels." His voice was admiring in the last sentence, but then he looked at me and his eyes grew steely again. He went to go tend to the other campers. I was left with more questions then answers.

**Once again, un-beta-ed, so be nice.**


	6. Of Fears And Food Fights

"No!"

I heard a shout from the kitchen. I put down my sword from where I was practicing in the gym area of out little prison when I heard it. I looked to where it came from, as did everybody else.

Annie stood for us all to see, a distraught look on her face.

"We have a _major _problem!" She yelled at us, her hands waving in the air wildly.

"And what would that be, princess?" Butch asked her snidely.

Annie abandoned her anxious expression for a menacing one.

"I'm nobodies princess, Rainbow Boy. Come at me and we'll see who's wearing the dress in the end!" She replied viciously. Butch looked ready to take her up on her offer, so I intervened.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Everybody calm down, ok? There's no need to fight. What's the problem Annie?" I asked her, trying to keep the peace.

Annie looked heartbroken again.

"I'm about ready to die of hunger and we have no food!" She howled as she fell to her knees.

Clarisse snorted at her and Nico chuckled.

"We have food." Kellyn pointed out, confused. He gestured to the open fridge door were various cooking items were being stored..

"Well yeah, but it all requires _cooking_! Do you know how to cook? 'Cause I sure as heck don't. not without burning down the whole freaking building, that is. There isn't a simple bag of chips and la Rue ate all the apples; which were the only edible things in this kitchen that didn't require boiling or baking or chopping or dicing. All we have is shredded cheese, unbaked potatoes, and baking soda. Have you ever craved baking soda before, because I sure haven't!" Annie ranted as we all began to understand what she was saying.

Not too long ago Chaos had returned to Camp to bring us all back to where we were now, what I like to call our Loft. We had arrived at camp after lunch, and he took us back before dinner was served. So as you can see, we're pretty screwed.

Since the first Trial jitters have worn off (Well that and the fact that we'd been in the jungle for Lord knows how long without food), we were all hungry and our stomach were growling. It was just that no one had brought food up until Annie. I was beginning to understand that food meant a whole lot to her. I wonder how the heck she's still so skinny, yet has a huge stomach.

"I'm sure _someone_ here can cook." Jake Mason said from where he was resting on one of the couches, still sore from the Trial.

"Well maybe you can, Mr. Fixit, but most of us would end up killing ourselves if we tried. HDHD does that to a person." Callista remarked coldly. Brian snickered to her side.

I'd been avoiding him with all my might since we got here. I so very badly wanted to strangle his skinny little neck, but I held back.

"Oh come on, it cant be that hard." Alexia insisted, speaking for the first time I've met her. When no one said anything she continued. "Do you want to starve?" That got everyone moving.

"I can cook a bit. Every Aphrodite girl can." Drew offered, for once her voice was devoid of is seducing quality. Alexia nodded, taking control of the situation.

"Ok, than you tell us what to do and we'll listen." She replied, a plan forming her head.

I nodded and headed to the kitchen, as most everyone was doing. A few stayed were they were.

"I'm not cooking, no matter what." Travis smirked and retuned to the TV where he and Brian were playing video games. Callista just examined her nails and ignored us all and Butch glared at anyone daring to look at him. Surprisingly Clarisse was offering her help, as was Nico. I suppose I'm a good role model for them.

"Buzz kills." Ryder Hunt muttered as he grabbed some bowels for us to use.

"You can stay resting, Jake, and you too Will. You both need to regain your strength for the next Trial." Alexia nodded to the two boys who looked relived.

"Ok people! Lets make some grub." Annie clapped happily.

A half an hour later found us no closer to making the grilled chicken we'd planned on baking than when it was still in the freezer. Clarisse was in the middle of a heated argument with Drew, both of which I thought had been around the oven fumes a bit too long. The rest of us just sat back and watched, since we needed Drew to tell us what to do (As sad as that sounds). The kitchen was a mess and we hadn't even made any progress with anything. Go figure.

"I'm telling you we need to put some flour and bread crumbs on the chicken to add some flavor. If you just put the chicken as is in the oven and cook it, it will be disgusting." Drew fought passionately, shaking her fists as the beefy girl.

"And I'm telling you these people will ruin the chicken if you make the recipe to freaking complicated. Just grill it so it's edible and tell them all to eat it or starve." Clarisse said, gesturing to us all with exasperation written all over her face. When Alex scoffed Clarisse just shrugged. "You idiots could make ready made hot chocolate to save your lives."

I sighed in exasperation and banged my head on the wall I was leaning on, earning a snicker from Nico. He looked just as agitated as I felt. But Nico had little to no patience, so he got agitated easily. I gave him my signature goofy smile (One I hadn't used in a while, since I hadn't been – as you could say – "happy" and therefore had no reason to smile). He just rolled his eyes me and turned away.

Ryder was watching Clarisse and Drew like they were the starts of a TV show that was currently on. He looked back and forth between the two of them, a small smile of amusement on his face.

Alexia looked ready to get between the two girls, but thought better of it. Smart move, too. Clarisse could easily throttle her. Fallon was just absentmindedly carving words into a carrot with a steak knife and Alex was sipping water from a glass as watched her. Annie had resorted to shoving bits for grated cheese down her throat, as she was apparently _that_ hungry. I had asked her about if a little while ago, she said it was actually pretty good. I might eat some too, if we don't get something cooking soon.

"Look, pig face! I'm the one here that can actually cook. You need to listen to me. Mrs. Goody two shoes even said so!" Drew yelled savagely, pointing to Alexia. "Listen to me!" Clarisse grew stiff and didn't reply back, she just nodded. Drew smirked and I sighed again.

"You can't charmspeak Clarisse, Drew. It's rude." I scolded, hitting Clarisse upside the head to snap her out of it.

Clarisse looked dazed for a minute before a murderous expression overtook her rough features.

"Your dead, Tanaka!" She shrieked, picking up two raw eggs in her hand and preparing to throw them at the Asian girl. Alexia, seeing what was coming, stepped in front of Drew and put her hands up calmly.

"Ok everyone, we all just need to calm do-" but it was too late. The eggs had already been launched and she had just stepped right in front of their target.

Alexia squeezed her eyes shut and tried to wipe some of the yoke off her face. She looked up at the ceiling and inhaled deeply, audibly counting to ten under her breath.

"Yeah buddy! That was awesome." Ryder exclaimed, high fiving Nico, who had a sadistic smile on his face. "Did you see the look on her face? She was so shocked and stuff. It was hilar-" once again someone was cut off, but this time it was by Alexia.

She the look on her face of a woman who had reached the end of her rope. She still has some flour residue on her hands. Ryder now looked like he had been out in a snowstorm, whit power all over his clothes and hair. He looked down and furiously tried to wipe as much off as possible.

"Not cool, man, not cool." He muttered to himself.

"Oh yeah! Food fight!" Annie yelled excitedly, grabbing some chopped tomatoes and flinging them on at Nico.

They landed on his black leather shoes and he danced around, desperately trying to get the sticky substance off.

"You're dead, Blondie." He shouted, returning with his own attack of Betty Crocker syrup.

Annie sputtered and laughed as the goop ran down her face.

The next instant food was flying everywhere. Forget the fact that there were only a few of us in the tiny kitchen, we were ruining the place.

"_Ti sto kalo."_ I said, throwing my hands up in the air.

I grabbed Alex's head into a headlock and stuffed some horribly chunky mashed potatoes into his hair, rubbing it in good.

"Ack! Quit it Percy!" he cried helplessly.

I chuckled and released him. He ran his hand through his hair, then shook his head like a dog to get some off and getting the potatoes all over me. I jumped away from him, but to no avail.

"Jerk." I grunted, playfully pushing him way. He smiled at me.

"Paybacks a beach." He laughed as he dashed over to target Kellyn.

Surprisingly enough Clarisse was laughing along with everyone else as she was pelted with ice cubes. Fallon was riding on Nico's shoulders as she squirted juice un in the air, letting it hit anyone near them. They were both laughing their heads off. Alex and Kellyn were dumping a huge pot of water over Alexia's head and Annie was shoving Drew's face into a milk and Flower mix, cackling like a maniac.

I looked around at the kitchen we were currently destroying.

The cabinets were covered various colors and textures of gunk, the floor was wet and sticky, and you couldn't even tell the fridge was a fridge.

I laughed softly to myself. I'd made a similar mess myself once.

Back before Paul and Gabe, I had decided to make my mom breakfast fro mother's day. The result was a pile of soggy eggs, burnt toast, and pulpy orange juice. My mom took it in stride though. She and I cleaned u the kitchen together. It was actually quite fun.

At the thought of my mom I immediately sobered up.

Time to calm them all down.

/

"Oh yeah! We got cookies, people!" Alex announced happily, holding the large plate overflowing with chocolate chip cookies in the air.

He slipped in the grime on the kitchen floor and nearly dropped it, but Nico grabbed it from his arms before he crashed to the ground.

"Don't mess around when you're handling our food." He hissed.

After two hours in the kitchen, cookies are all we managed to bake. We made a boat load, though. Enough for all of our empty stomachs. Not exactly a nutritious meal… but's it what we had.

Nico set the plate on a table near the 'living room' and we all gathered around it like vultures. Annie already had five stuffed into her mouth. We were all starving.

And not only did we have dried and crusted food on our clothes and hair from out food fight, but now we also had cookie dough in our nails and sticking to our fingers like glue. None of us cared though. We just wanted to _eat._

"Oh, sweet." Travis said with reverence. He and my brother came racing over to us. We all formed al wall in front of the food and Clarisse took a step forward, her lips raised like a wolves.

"No cookies for you, you lazy bums." She sneered, pushing Brian with her fist. Brian slapped her hand away.

"Why the heck not?" Travis asked.

"Because you jerks didn't help _make_ the cookies, so you don't get to _eat _the cookies." Fallon said with her hands on he hips.

"Then what are we supposed to eat?" Callista asked, coming up behind the two boys.

While they spoke, I quietly took a few cookies on a paper plate and silently made my way to Will and Jake. They smiled warmly and hungrily at me when I handed it to them.

"Oh, you can have the cookies," Alexia remarked with a falsely sweet smile. "You just have to clean the kitchen first."

"You expect us to clean that wreck?" Brian asked with a leer. Nico threw him a dish rage.

"Yup." Annie said, popping the 'p'.

"I'm not stepping foot in that disaster. You'd have to be stupid to think I would." Butch growled at us all.

I took a cookie of the plate and bit into it, smiling when I tasted its gooey goodness.

"Well then no cookies for you." I said simply.

Brian's stomach growled and he resentfully walked over to the kitchen, plopping down on his knees and started wiping up the floor. The others came after him, cleaning too, just for a bite of cookie.

"Ah, this is sweet." Clarisse said spitefully, roughly biting into a cookie as she watched gleefully.

/

_(Two days later)_

That moment felt like a million years ago. At that moment we had all been carefree and just generally happy (Well, my friends and I were, Brian and his friends – not so much), now we were all stone faced and tense. We all stood in one line, shoulder to shoulder, in front of the most powerful man alive. Chaos smiles at our sullen faces.

"Are you ready for the next Trial?" he asked us excitedly. When we all shook out heads he pouted. "Well I am."

No one replied to his antics. He eyes narrowed but he didn't comment.

We weren't at out 'Loft' any longer. Right now, we stood at the edge of a bluff in the middle of the Grand Canyon before a cave that seemed to go on forever. It was pitch black and you could hear noises coming from inside it, like creatures shifting. Everyone was glancing at it nervously every once in a while.

"Fine then, don't speak. I'll explain the challenge to you all now." He said loudly, clearing his throat and adjusting the black tie on his black blouse matched with black dress pants and black work shoes. Man, the dude really loved black. "Ok, here it is: I like to call this trial the 'cave of fears'. What will happen is each of you will take a sip from this cup," he held up a golden chalice. "And enter into the cave, where you will be forced to enter into your greatest fear. The first to overcome their fear will get fifty points, the second will get thirty, and the third will get twenty. Understood?" he asked us. We all nodded, eyeing the chalice with suspicion.

"Well then, come on now! Someone take a sip and enter!" he exclaimed when no one moved.

Callista gulped nervously and moved forward, showing the first sign of any emotion but anger since I met her. She took the chalice from Chaos, took a sip, and gave it back. She then walked into the cave with her head held high.

After her, came Will, and then Butch, and then Clarisse, and then Annie, and one by one everyone was in the cave. I was the last to go. I looked at the cave. Once anyone entered, you no longer heard their foot steps.

When I walked up to take the chalice I stared at the slimy green concoction.

"Why exactly do we need to drink this?" I asked him.

Chaos rolled his eyes and sighed.

"It's an old Indian recipe, it's supposed to enhance your brain activity and allow your body to easily enter the 'spirit world"." He replied vaguely. I glared at him, but still took a sip anyway. Then I entered into the cave.

Once the back of the caves shadow passed over my face I began to feel funny. I stumbled in the darkness as the walls seemed to fade away to show me Camp Half-Blood. I was standing by Thalia's tree, looking down on the entirety of camp.

I couldn't remember how I got there, or what I was doing. I couldn't remember the past few days. I was about to start panicking when Annabeth and Brian came walking my way, their hands entwined and swinging back and forth with each step.

Annabeth had a dreamy look on her face and Brian was just staring at me smugly.

I felt a frozen vice grip my heart, making me cold inside. I did remember what happened with them, and I was getting worked up all over again about it.

"See Prissy," Brian hissed in my ear when they got closer. "She loves me. Me, not you, me. I'm just so much better than you. All you are is a wimp who got lucky. The prophecy wasn't even entirely about you. It was mainly about Luke! Luke even like me more than he likes you. He granted me his sword. A dead man who hadn't even met me before chose me over you. What does that tell you?" he taunted, putting an arm around Annabeth's shoulders.

"He's right, Seaweed Brain. I do love him. We're going to get married one day, you know. I never liked you. I was just using you to get what I wanted; recognition, a powerful position, and a boyfriend with connections. I hated you, really. You're a glory hog. What kind of hero cant even save his own mother." She laughed coldly.

I fisted my hand in anger. That one hit me deep.

What was I doing on Half-Blood Hill again. Why was I here? I couldn't remember, but I knew I had to do something important.

"Shut up Annabeth." I said weekly. "You don't know anything. Just shut up!" a tear fell from my eyes.

"Pathetic." Annabeth sneered.

I opened my mouth to talk to her again, but I stopped when two people appeared by my side.

"Hello, son." My mom said with a snarl.

"Mom." I gaped.

"Oh no, don't you dare call me mom! It's your fault I'm dead, all your fault. You killed me! If you hadn't been born I would be alive and happy right now. I would have never had to marry Gabe. I never wanted you. You're a freak, a mistake." She ranted, her hands balling into fists. With each word, I felt as if she had punched me in the gut. I stepped away from her as I flinched.

She was dead. Why was she standing in front of me?

Paul stepped closer to me, he stepped in front of my mom, like he was protecting her from me. He looked like he wanted to murder me. He probably did.

"You're a horrible son, you know that? You should have come home when Sally asked, then you could have protected her, protected me. We were helpless on out own. The little monsters didn't even want us, they wanted revenge on _you!_" he spat at my feet.

"Yeah, Percy." Travis Stoll said, appearing out of thin air. How was that possible. "Everything's your fault. Its your fault so many campers died in the war, it's your fault the camp got ruined, it's your fault my brother turned against me! I hate you and so does everyone else."

"You're a loser." Thalia agreed venomously. When did she get here?

"A freak." Katie added. I was getting crowded, everyone was pressing in on me.

"A wannabe. You'll never be as good as your brother." Clarisse grinned.

"You're nothing to me." Chiron glared. "I don't know why I wasted my time with you."

"No, please." I gasped, trying to find air. Katie and Clarisse were my friends. What happened? I needed to breath, but they kept taking my air. They just kept getting closer and closer.

"I hate you." Nico howled. "You killed my sister!"

"I did not, I did not, and I am not." I chanted at I desperately tried to cover my ears with my hands. Annabeth pulled them away.

"Alex and I were better off without you." Annie smirked.

"You're pathetic." Callista cackled.

"Stop it! Stop it, please!" I yelled hysterically.

"All you cause is chaos." My dad shouted at me.

Suddenly it all clicked. Chaos. It was his fault I'm here, experiencing this. He brought me here. I was a participant in his Trials. I was being tested. What they were saying wasn't real; Katie wasn't real, Annie wasn't real. They were my friends.

This was my greatest fear, everyone I love turning against me.

"You're not real." I shouted at them all.

"I hate you."

"I hate you."

"You freak,"

"You loser!"

"Go away!" I shouted again, but this time with more power.

I lifted my hands, forcing the water on Camp Half-Blood's beaches to surround me in a huge torrent of water. The people around me screamed, getting caught in it and being tossed around.

I laughed happily as Annabeth floated by me, a horrified look on her face.

As I laughed, Camp Half-Blood faded away around me, like it was being washed away from my vision. I felt a hard surface underneath me and I realized I was lying on the ground with my eyes closed. I groaned and opened my eyes, pushing myself off the ground. I looked around and saw several other lying haphazardly on the ground as well, all twitching in their sleep like they were having a nightmare. I guess they were.

I stumbled out of the cave and into the blinding sun. Several people were already out and most looked pretty freaked.

Chaos came over to me with a brilliant smile.

"Congrats Percy-Boy. You're the fifth person to overcome the Trial." He greeted cheerfully.

"Well the concoction I made you all drink caused you to pass out, and then I had Morpheus control your dreams to make you face your real fear, that way you weren't really in danger." He explained.

I groaned again promptly fell to the ground in a tired heap.

/

Callista couldn't remember much, but she was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to be so short. She examined her tiny, six year old hands in confusion. Weren't they supposed to be bigger and calloused?

"Callie!" A deep, angered voice shouted in a thick Russian accent. Callista flinched away from it.

Her father stood under the doorway, his stance menacing and imposing.

"I told you to clean up the kitchen! Why are the dishes still in the sink!" He roared at her. Callista whimpered in fear.

"I'm sorry, I must have missed them." Callista said in a small, frightened voice. She scrambled to her feet and attempted to walk calmly past her father to do as he had asked.

But she didn't get far.

When she got close to him, he slapped her across the face. The impact sent her sprawling to the ground.

She let out a pained cry. Wasn't her voice supposed to be stronger, deeper than that?

"You're worthless, Callie." He leered at her tiny frame.

"No I'm not." She fought weekly.

"Don't back talk me!" He yelled, kicking her side roughly.

"Ah!" She cried in pain, clutching where she'd been kicked.

No, that's not how she'd been taught to handle a situation like this. Wait, when had she been taught to fight?

"You cant do anything right! No wonder your mother left us. She didn't want to be stuck with a screw up like you." Sergei Snigurka was a cruel man, Callista knew. His words were like knives to her heart.

"I don't know why I still keep you around." Sergei threw a book at her, it hit her cheek, leaving a gash a few inches below her eye.

She started to cry, which just got Sergei even more angry. Her tears fell down her cheeks in waterfalls, getting into her cut and making it sting severely.

'I'm stronger than this,' she kept saying in her head. Why was she acting so weak? She'd fought much worse than Sergei Snigurka. Wait, when had she ever fought anything? Where had that thought come from?

"Get up, you insolent child! I have more work for you to do." Sergei demanded harshly, yanking her arms with enough force to pull it out of its socket. Luckily all he did was bruise her.

Sergei pulled her to the living room, ignoring he past remark about the kitchen and pushing her inside. He walked in and sat noisily on the couch, throwing an empty chip bag on the ground as he did so. He pointed to a pile of broken beer bottle and other trash.

"Clean it up." His Russian accent made his words that much more sharp and harsh. Callista worked hard not to cringe away from his very vice. Usually she did not succeed.

She went to work right away, glad that her father was watching the TV and not yelling at her when he thought she wasn't doing good enough a job. Nothing she did was every good enough for him.

Her cheek was bleeding pretty badly. The blood ran down her cheeks like crimson tears, mixing with the salty tears that were already tumbling down her face.

She picked up some of the broken shards of glass – no doubt where her father had thrown the beer bottle in a fit of rage – and carried it to the kitchen to throw it in the garbage.

She walked as quietly as possible. One time, when her father was watching TV and he thought she was walking too loudly, he'd thrown a beer bottle at _her._ She'd gotten so cut up she couldn't go to school for the next few weeks, until they all healed and the abuse was erased visibly from her skin.

She sighed silently as she dumped a few pieces in the trash can.

She heard a fly a few feet away from her, near the kitchen wall. She hated flies. They annoyed her father when they buzzed around his head, which resulted in him getting annoyed at her, which resulted in her getting physically injured.

Suddenly, she was furious at the little buzzing creature. How could such a tiny thing cause her so much pain?

She scowled at it, clutching a pointed shard of glass in her hand. When it buzzed by just the right spot, before she knew it the shard of glass had flown fro her hand.

It went right threw the fly, killing it instantly and pinning it to the wall.

Callista looked at it in shock. She was frozen in the stance she had instinctually taken to ensure the shard's perfect path.

Callista didn't know she could do that.

Had she been taught?

'Yes,' she remembered. 'At Camp Half-Blood.'

She was a demigod, a being higher than her pathetic father.

Her face grew impassive as she heard her father yell for her.

She could feel her body growing as it took its current shape, the shape of a fit, experienced woman. She looked down at the last piece of broken glass in her hand – which was now three times larger and battle worn.

She'd wanted to do this for years.

She marched into the living room. When her father saw her, his face grew pale and he shot up from the couch.

"Callie?" he asked, his voice no longer sounding intimidating to her.

"You're going to get what you deserve, you filthy mortal." She whispered, deathly calm.

She let out a battle cry, diving for her father with deadly accuracy. She pointed the shard at his heart, pointed side out.

She relished in the fear she saw in his eyes.

Before she could drive the shard through his skin, the scene melted away, and she was lying on the hard surface of a cave.

She shrieked in outrage. She'd been so close.

She was the first to finish.

/

Alexia was positioned awkwardly behind a tree, trying to completely conceal herself behind it. Her sister Bailey was pressed against her, clutching her arm tightly. They were looking over the side of the tree hesitantly, watching a hellhound carefully as it sulked around the forest floor in front of them, sniffing for the two girls' scents.

"What are we going to do if it finds us?" Bailey asked in a terrified voice.

"I don't know, Bails." Alexia replied honestly. Bailey pursed her lips and nodded, turning back to where the giant dog should have been, only it wasn't there.

"Lexi, were did it go?" she asked desperately, tugging on her older sister sleeve.

Alexia gripped her knife tightly, mentally preparing herself for if she had to use it. She looked around frantically but she couldn't find any trace of it.

She stood up slowly, not making a sound, her knife positioned in front of her defensively.

A growl sounded from above the two girls. They both looked up sharply as they heard the branches creek and groan in protest above them.

The hellhound jumped down from where it been resting, its hackles raised as it snarled and growled angrily at the two females before it.

"Run!" Shouted Alexia. She pushed Bailey to the side and brandished her knife in front of her, trying to distract the beast away from her sister long enough for her to get away. "Gah!" she screamed, trying to sound intimidating and scary. The hellhound continued to advance on her, appearing unfazed. It stalked closer and closer.

"You stay away from us!" Alexia shouted. She could hear Bailey's batted breath as she ran through the trees behind her. She just had to distract it long enough, just long enough. Bailey had to get away. She had to keep her little sister safe.

The hellhound made a swipe at her and she poked its front leg as hard as she could with her knife, drawing blood. It growled, a low and mincing sound at her. She cringed and stumbled back a little.

"N-no, you leave us alone." She stuttered.

"Alexia? Alexia!" Bailey yelled frantically as she realized her sister wasn't anywhere near her anymore.

"No Bailey!" Alexia cried, horrified. "Don't wait for me. Run!"

The hellhound had taken her distraction and had leaped over her, running after the sound of her sister's voice. Alexia shrieked and ran after it.

The cry that came from her sister would forever replay in Alexia's mind as the hellhound caught up to her and pierced its teeth into Bailey's shoulder.

"No!" Alexia screamed in shock. "No!"

She dashed to them, the sound of death still ringing in her ears. She hit it with her knife and it turned to her, its blood red eyes singing with a malicious joy. Its muzzle was covered in blood, Bailey's blood.

Alexia let out a cry of outrage at the site of her sister, bloodied and broke. She lunged at the hellhound and plunged her knife into its heart before it could reciprocate.

The beats turned to ashes on the spot, but Alexia didn't care. She went straight to her little sister.

She held Bailey's limp body in her arms and cried, gut wrenching sobs.

"Please don't leave me." She begged breathlessly. "Please!"

Her sister didn't respond. Her body was completely still. Her heart had stopped. Alexia gave a soulful shriek towards the sky, expressing her heart break.

Thunder rolled above and it started raining, like the sky was crying with her. Her father was crying for her. Realization dawned on Alexia.

Alexia let her little sister's body go and squared her shoulder's.

She was not weak.

She was not a baby.

She could not change the past.

And this was the past. This was a test.

She carefully placed Bailey back on the ground and walked confidently, albeit brokenly, out of the cave that had appeared before her as the forest had faded away.

She was strong. She'd been the second to finish.

/

I looked at everyone as the Trial ended. Most people were reduced to tears, but a few just looked relived, like they were glad they'd faced their fears.

Callista had won the trail. Alexia had come second. Nico had been third.

Callista was so still and stone-faces, I couldn't help but wonder what her greatest fear was. What had caused the mighty, emotionless Callista Snigurka to have to hide herself to severely.

Alexia was standing straight and not looking anyone in the eyes. I'd gotten a glimpse of her eyes a few minutes ago. They were heartbroken. I would have to talk with her about it later. I knew that look in her eyes. She'd lost someone; someone close to her.

Surprisingly, Nico was openly crying. He didn't seem ashamed or bother trying to hide it.

Chaos looked at us all grimly. Could he regret making us go through that. No. I don't think so. Perhaps he was he was just upset we had such horrible things to be afraid of, or he was angry he felt the need to put us through it. I don't know. I was just glad it was over. We'd all survived intact, physically anyway.

Now it was time to face Camp Half-Blood and all its inhabitants.


	7. Sea Green Flowers

**A/N: I'm sincerely sorry for this late update, it was supposed to be up last weekend! But I do have an excuse. For one, the computer I'd originally been working on (and I'd had like 1500 words already typed) shut down and I lost all that I had accomplished so far, that really pissed me off! Also, I was busy with thanksgiving and school. I even went to see the new Twilight movie at 12:00 on Thursday… or was it really Friday? Well it doesn't really matter, I despise the Twilight movies :P. They completely ruined the books!**

**This website really isn't for me. I'm way to impatient for this place, let me tell you. When I see that someone hasn't updated I just want to scream. I know you all have lives and all, but I just can't help my impatience :P anyway, sorry to bore you with this rant.**

**For anyone confused here's the Points earned so far:**

**Alexia Morgansten, daughter of Zeus: 50 points**

**Madison McCauley, daughter of Apollo: 30 points**

**Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon: 24 points**

**Annie Freeman, daughter of Nike: 24 points**

**Alex Madison, son of Demeter: 24 points**

**Ryder Hunt, son of Dionysus: 30 points**

**Donovan Blackwell, son of Thanatos: 8 points**

**Callista Snigurka, daughter of Khinoe: 8 points**

**Jason Truce, son of Nyx: 8 points**

**(Who are you rooting for?)**

**I'm reconsidering the whole 'love triangle' thing. Someone pointed out that was a bit cliché, and I kind of agree. So… I'm still not sure. I might just make Annie a very, very good friend of Percy's or something,**

**I've also been thinking of something else I think you guys would like. I might make this story into a series! If so, then it would most likely consist of three books, maybe two, and each book would be from 15 to 20 chapters long. I would call them the Chaos Conspiracy Series. What do you all think of that? **

**Ok, enough with my crazy idea. I don't want to get all your hopes up too much . I hope you like the chapter, sorry if it's not the best but I've some writer's block :P(Sorry for the long A/N)**

We all sort of just stood there awkwardly, holding our breaths as we waited for someone, anyone, to react. Chaos had just left only seconds ago after giving out the points earned and now we stood before the entire camp as they stared at us with wide and shocked eyes. I'm guessing they somehow saw what all of our worst fears were.

It was obvious that some of our fear were worse than others. Alexia was trying to put up a strong front, but I could see pain in her eyes, Annie was shaking like a leaf, Madison was crying silently, and Hal looked sullen and withdrawn. While Ryder seemed proud of himself, Kellyn looked pleased, and Isa was smirking.

Leighton was, for the first time, the one doing the comforting. She had her arms protectively around Madison as Madison cried silently. Leighton must have known what Madison saw as her worst fear, because her eyes were sad and downcast for her sister.

I looked around at all the faces and noticed a few that stuck out more to me. Annabeth, for one, was looking at me with confusion so tangible it was like liquid in her eyes. When she noticed my gaze she looked away with a blush. I shook my head in confusion and looked specifically for Autumn, I needed her right now. When I saw her she gave me a smile, it was shaky, but still comforting.

I saw Thalia shake off the shock, the first to really react to any of us since we'd arrived, and she strode confidently over to her half-sister Alexia. She put her arm around Alexia's shoulder's, the closest thing to warmth I've ever seen in her eyes, and dragged her away talking loudly about how nice it would be to have a normal sister amongst a crowd of idiot boys and men-hating girls.

Her actions snapped all that were present else out of their trances and everyone got moving. Those few who didn't know any of the half-bloods participating in the trials walked back to their cabins or prior activities and those who did know one of us came running. Sibling comforted shaken siblings and friends made sure to be there for their friends.

I saw a crowd of preppy Apollo girls surround Leighton and Madison and I knew they'd be ok. I sighed in relief.

I glanced over at Annie and saw her standing awkwardly off to the side all alone. Her hands were clenched into fists so tight her knuckles were white. Her eyes looked angered and depressed at the same exact time. I knew she didn't have many friends here at camp, but I never knew it was this bad.

She wiped something off her face and sprinted over to the forest, her legs noticeably shaky.

I choked back a cry of protest and made to run after her, but someone grabbed my arm before I had a chance. I looked behind me to see Katie Gardner standing there with a huge smile on her face. She pulled me into a warm hug.

"I never got a chance to thank you for helping my brother in the first Trial," she explained as she pulled away from me.

"Alex can be a bit of a loss when it comes to fighting. My siblings are just as grateful o you. If it helps at all, they've realized what an idiot Brian is. You've won over their favor, but you should also know, you never lost mine."

"Thanks." I replied, not sure exactly how to react to her words.

"You're so awkward sometimes." Katie said with a laugh. I grinned at her and she hugged my arm, drawing closer to me.

"Yeah, well that's me." I agreed with a shrug. Katie rolled her eyes.

"Obviously. Anyway, I have to go to my garden and make sure my plants are doing ok. Here, this is something I grew for you, but it's from all of us." She said quietly, slipping something smooth and silky into my hand before running off to her cabin. I looked down to see what she'd given me.

It was an ocean green colored flower shaped similarly like a daffodil. A single emerald was growing magically in the center of it. It was beautiful… and I don't say that about a lot of things.

Once again I made to go in the direction Annie had gone, and once again I was stopped, this time by someone running up to me and hugging me from behind. I smelled the all too familiar smell of salty ocean water and fresh, sea air.

"Hey autumn," I greeted with a short laugh. I turned around again and saw Autumn with Nico standing next to her and one other person behind them. "What's up Nico?"

"Percy! I can't believe you never told me you were so afraid of being rejected! I could have helped you, I'm your sister! Why didn't you just tell me?" Autumn demanded with a snarl. I held up my hands in surrender.

"It never came up in a conversation! And how did you all see what our fears were anyway?" I asked curiously.

"Thalia _tried _to tell you last time you saw her," Nico said with a smirk. "But you were interrupted. We see everything that goes on with you guys while you're in your house type thing, and while you participating in a trial on a giant Iris message. Nice food fight by the way, I wish I'd had cookies for dinner."

"You saw that? Everyone saw that? You're joking right?" I questioned in disbelief. That's a major invasion of privacy.

"Well, yeah, but let's talk about something else," Autumn said nervously, trying to change the subject. "Guess who's here?"

"Who?" Just then the person hidden behind my two friends came out and I immediately went to hug them. "Grover!" I exclaimed happily. "I missed you buddy."

"I missed you too Perce." Grover said while laughing.

"How're you doing?" he asked in a concerned voice. I hadn't seen him since my breakup with Annabeth, so he didn't really know what was going on around here. So much had changed.

"I'm doing ok, better now that you're here." I assured him.

"Good. Now would you mind telling me how the heck you got into this mess? I leave for a few months, and you're already involved in a life threatening activity! YOU'RE GOING TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK, YOU STUPID SON OF POSEIDON!" He yelled frantically, while shaking my shoulders roughly.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down Grover, it's not entirely his fault." Autumn said, intervening.

"Yeah, although if he wasn't participating in the Chaos Trials most likely he'd be doing something else just as dangerous." Nico agreed with a falsely straight face. Autumn punched him in the arm.

"Shut up." She warned him. Nico just rubbed his arm and glared at her.

"Relax Grover." I said in a soothing voice. He was shooting lasers at me with his eyes, but he did let me go and take a step away.

"I can't believe you." He muttered angrily.

"You're just being over protective." I smirked at him as he continued to glare. "Besides, I've been through much worse."

"That's the point Percy! You shouldn't be able to say that! Do you realize most of the trouble you've gotten into during your years at camp were because of your own doing?" Grover shrieked, making that 'bah-a' sound he always made when he was nervous.

"That's not true," I fought. "In my first year, I had absolutely no choice but go on the quest with you and… you know who, in my second year, I had to save your sorry butt, and in my third year… ok, I admit that was my fault, but the rest wasn't!"

Grover just smirked knowing he'd gotten to me.

"Insufferable satyr." I growled, tugging at my hair.

"Ooh, big word. Who knew you were that smart." Nico snarked evilly. I pushed him to the ground as I made my way to the forest, in the direction Annie had gone, muttering to Autumn about having to take care of something.

/

I walked cautiously through the woods, trying to be as quiet as possible. Chiron had warned us never to go in here unless we were practicing or playing capture the flag. I'm guessing it's because of the monsters. But so far I hadn't run into any. I listened carefully for any clues as to where Annie may have gone. After about ten minutes I heard the sound of something hard hitting a tree trunk and a girl grunt.

I walked a little faster and pushed aside a few pine branches and came across a clearing. Standing dead center of said clearing was none other than Annie herself. She had several silver daggers in her left hand, and one by one she positioned a single dagger in her right hand, and professionally threw it with all her might. I watched, enthralled, as it flew through the air, hitting its mark perfectly, just like the five other daggers already wedged into the dark brown trunk.

I walked, as if in a daze over towards her. I was happy I'd found her, but also quite worried by the expression on her face. She moved like a machine, preprogrammed to be perfect. On her face was a look of frustration and sadness.

I was about to clear my throat to gain her attention, but instead I let out a strangled cry as something big, furry, and white leaped on me from the front, pinning me to the ground. I came face to face with sharp fangs and a muzzle.

"Um, hi," I whispered nervously, the wolf just growled and leaned closer, I flinched away.

"Zigzag, heel!" Annie said demanded, snapping her fingers. The wolf, Zigzag, whined but complied to the command.

"Jackson," Annie groaned when she saw it was me. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to know if you were ok. You seemed, I don't know, lost before. You seemed sad." I explained. I knew I said the right thing when her eyes warmed slightly and she held out her hand to help me.

"Well that's kind and all, but I would prefer to be alone right now." She said, turning from me when I was standing again.

"Come one Annie," I whined like a child, trying to get her to smile. "I just want to help. You can trust me."

I succeeded in getting a reaction at least. She whipped around and looked at me guardedly.

"Why do you want to help me?" she asked.

"Because I think you could use a friend, you know, someone your age and… human." I replied, glancing nervously to the white wolf.

Annie smirked when she saw that and sat down on a fallen tree, patting the spot next to her for me to sit too.

"Ziggy's been with me since before I came to camp, he kept me safe. He was my only companion after…" she trialed off looking sadly at the tree where her daggers were still lodged.

"Doesn't that hurt the nymphs?" I asked, trying to distract her.

"Nope." She said, her face noticeably brighter. "I searched my entire first week at camp for a nymph-less tree so I could practice away from prying eyes."

"How long _have_ you been at camp?" I questioned curiously.

"Since I was seven." She replied looking down at the dirt. I knew I wouldn't be able to get any answers out of her, she was too walled up and careful. I would have to improvise.

"How about we make a deal?" I said, an idea instantly coming to mind. "I'll tell you what my worst fear was, if you tell me yours. That way we both have to spill something we'd rather not."

Annie sighed and looked up at the sky, leaning back on her hands. She shook her head but turned back to me with a resigned frown.

"Fine, if it means you'll go away, then fine. You go first." She decided. I nodded in agreement.

"Ok, well my fear was, to put it simply, being rejected by all my friends… and my family. You see, when Brian came, everything fell apart. My girlfriend cheated on me with him, my friends ignored me in favor of him, and my dad acted like I was a nobody because Brian was better. And to top it off my mother was killed three days after it all started. I haven't been the same since. I just can't be. I feel responsible for my mom's death. I know it's not as bad as things that have happened to other people but, um, it was just too much to take at once." I admitted to her while I nervously rubbed my hands.

For a few minutes she was silent and I was afraid she would just forget about our agreement and ditch me, just like everyone else. Finally, she spoke.

"My fear… it wasn't really a fear, it was a memory. And I was forced to relive it. It was horrible. I had to watch it all, something I've had nightmares about since I was five." She told me quietly, her voice shaking. "When I was five, I was living in Texas, my home state, and my father was attacked by a hellhound. I had been outside with one of our horses, Cashmere, at the time and I heard the noise from the fight. I ditched the horse and ran into the house to see my dad with a huge cut in gut and a large black, shaggy wolf-like dog watching him like he was his next meal.

"I gasped and my dad saw me, he seemed to know he had to protect me, so he lunged at the hound as a distraction so I could get away. The hellhound-he ripped into him, like he was made of fabric. It was so graphic… and _real._ Like a horror movie. I screamed and the hound turned to me. It took a single slash at me, giving me this." Annie held out her arm to me, turning it over so I could see the scar better. It was on her forearm. I lightly ran my hand over the raised skin, three long parallel lines from the claws.

"I shrieked bloody murder and my dad, who was amazingly still alive, produced a bronze dagger out from nowhere and stabbed the hound in the heart, making it combust into dust. He died only minutes later. I was there, holding his hand." She retracted her arm from my grasp, a remorseful look on her face.

"But if this all happened when you were five, how come you weren't brought to camp half-blood until you were seven?" I asked her quietly, not wanting to make too much noise for some reason.

"That's a whole other story, but I suppose I can tell you." She decided looking at me with a cocked eyebrow.

"I ran away after my after died, so I could avoid foster care. And once I started running, I couldn't stop because the monsters just kept coming and coming. That's how I found Zigzag. I was hiking through the Rocky's when I was six to avoid a hoard of trolls, and I stumbled across a bleeding wolf pup, seemingly abandoned by its pack. I healed him and he never left my side after that." She smiled own at Ziggy who was curled up at her feet. She gently petted his head.

"A satyr by the name of Kris found me when I was living on the streets of New York, just after I'd turned seven. It was by accident, and once he'd found me, he wouldn't leave me alone. I fought him but he found a way to subdue me and forced me to camp. Haven't you ever wondered why I hate it here so much? I was doing fine on my own, and I would have always done fine. I liked being by myself, with just Ziggy." She told me with an unwavering resolve in her eyes.

"Well I'm glad you're here, and you know, sometimes a friend is all you need to make a place seem better. I'll be here whenever you need me from now on. All you have to do is ask for me and I'll be there." I said warmly. She actually smiled, the first real smile I'd ever seen on her. She looked down at my hand, noticing that my hand was clutching something.

She took my hand and opened it, seeing the flower resting on my palm.

"Who gave you this?" She asked picking it up and examining it.

"Katie Gardner did. She said it was thanks for helping Alex. I'm not sure why she gave it to me instead of you though. You helped him more then I." I explained to her. She smirked at my last sentence.

"Katie and I don't really see eye to eye. I mean, I get along with her better then other people, but I can't say we're friends. She probably wanted to avoid an awkward conversation." She replied happily.

"Katie gets along withe everybody." I said agreed.

"Yeah. Here, I'll put this right... here," Annie took off my camp necklace in one quick motion and began expertly tying the flower onto it, weaving it into the tweed so it looked like just another bead. "This way you won't loose it, and you'll always have it with you as a reminder that you'll never be rejected. At least not my _everybody."_ I smiled widely in appreciation. I knew she was a good person the moment I saw her with that Eris kid. I'm glad I went to comfort her. I had gained another friend.

"Come on, it's getting dark and I think Chaos will allow us to stay for the campfire this time." I told her standing up.

"Thanks Percy, for being there for me." She smiled again and gave me a quick, but warm hug. Then she dashed off through the wood with Ziggy trailing behind her. "I have to go find Ellie. Sit with your girlfriend. I'll see you later!" she yelled to me behind her shoulder.

"Girlfriend?" I asked myself out loud.

/

"Hey Alexia." I greeted as I approached where she was sitting by the fire. She smiled when she saw me.

"Hello Percy." She replied.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" I asked her. She nodded vigorously.

"So, how are doing? You seemed kind of shaken before." I remarked, watching her closely.

"I'm doing ok. Just… bad memories." She confided in me. I gave a small comforting smile and nodded.

"I can understand that." I said with a sigh.

"Yeah, did you know that the _entire _camp has been watching us at the house? Thalia kept on teasing me about the food fight and she wouldn't let up! It wasn't that funny, was it?" she asked me innocently.

"I guess it probably seemed funny to them." I explained with a shrug. She sighed and leaned her head on my shoulder tiredly.

"This whole Chaos thing is just plain exhausting." she said with a frustration seeping into her voice.

"That's the understatement of the century." I commented with a snort.

Alexia giggled at that, and then it turned into all out laughing. She laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach. I looked down at her and laughed myself. Seeing her like this was pretty hilarious, she seemed drunk. I laughed just as hard as she did. Eventually we both ended up on the ground laughing out butts off. Everyone was watching us with strange expressions on their faces. That just made us laugh harder.

I spotted Annie sitting with Ellie on one of the benches. When she saw me looking she smirked and gave me a thumbs up and looked pointedly at Alexia.

Apparently, she approved.

Once Alexia and I had calmed down we sat back on the wooden bench, but we couldn't help but still chuckle every once in a while. It wasn't even that funny, but with the stress we were under, and the lack of real food in our stomachs was getting to us.

"How goes it Peeps?" Someone said sitting next to me. I looked over to see Duncan smiling at the two of us suggestively.

"Hey Duncan." I greeted.

Alexia made a strange 'oomf' said and both Duncan and I looked at her to see one of the other Participants, Leia, had just plopped herself on Alexia's lap.

"Hey guys! I haven't spoken to you all that often since this whole things started! Can you believe that trial? It was ridiculous because some of our fears were WAY worse then others! I mean. my worst fear was just that, a fear! But Madison, and don't tell anyone I'm telling you this because the only reason I know is because I was snooping, but her worst fear was reliving the car crash that killed her mother. Do you know how horrible that must have been for her?" Leia asked with wide eyes. She's said that whole paragraph in a matter of seconds and now she was breathless.

"Wow that was fast." Duncan breathed in an impressed voice.

"Yes, real fast, not can you please get off my lap?" Alexia asked sarcastically.

"Yeesh, sorry." Leia apologized without really sounding apologetic. She got up and sat between the two of us.

Alexia just got more annoyed.

"Why are you two eve over here?" She asked shortly. Neither Duncan, nor Leia were effected by her.

"Well you two were laughing like crazy, and I wanted to know what was so funny." Duncan replied with a shrug.

"And I just wanted to get to know you too better." Leia said, her eyes wide and falsely innocent. She pouted her lips slightly to add to the effect.

"Oh brother." I grumbled, rolling my eyes.

**A/N: awww, wasn't that just freaking adorable ;). It sure was fun to write. Anyway, I have to say I'm pretty psyched about the whole series idea. I have so many different ideas running through my head about it, I even plan on adding in the Romans (Which means Piper, Leo, and Jason) Again, sorry for the late update, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I would sure appreciate a review from you peoples!**


	8. The Devil's Seasons Part 1

**A/N: Hi peoples! How's it going? Once again, this update is a little latter then usual, but with the Christmas and all, the rest of the updates for this month will probably come late. Don't be too surprised if I don't update for the rest of the month, cause I've got a life and a family. And truly, with how slow pretty much **_**everyone**_** on the website updates, you have absolutely nothing to complain about. I mean, I wait weeks for one person to update a story and the chapter is only 700 words long! I make it a goal of mine to write over two thousand words a chapter, or else I feel like my writing is crappy. Another thing, I'm trying out something new in this chapter, and I'm not sure if the people reading this who haven't submitted a character will like it, so please tell me if you do. There is a different POV in this chapter. I hope you like the chapter **

**On another subject, I have a few ideas of what the next story in this series will be called. ****As Chaos Reigns**** is one possibility, ****Faithless Fall(Or Downfall)**** is another, although I don't like it as much since it doesn't have the word Chaos in it. Another option is ****As Chaos Sets In****, and ****The Beginnings of the Chaos Era.**** I'd love to know which title you like best, or even if you have one of your own. If I use your title, then you'll get full credit for it and I'll use an OC of yours as a main character in the next story. Anyways, enjoy!**

_Kellyn Plateia's POV_

I never expected to do anything or be anything great. To be perfectly honest my life had always been ordinary and dull. I was a calm and rational person, someone who analyzed every situation and sought the safest route. I was writer, I had my experiences through my writings.

My life before camp was relatively normal, and I'd only been at Camp Half-Blood for approximately two weeks before these bloody trials began. I had just been adjusting to the idea that my mother _the_ Athena when I was picked to participate.

It was a shock, to say the least. I had barely any training and very few friends to cheer me on, so I didn't exactly expect it to be fun. In fact, it was the exact opposite. In the first trial, I fell off a cliff. Oh yeah, that's real fun (note the sarcasm). And in the second trial I had to face my worst fear. I was pushed off the Empire State building! I hate man made heights.

Although I can't really complain. My life at camp, not matter how short the amount of time I've been here, has been better then my old one. My father was a scientist who barely ever had time for me. He hated that I liked writing and tried to squash my creativity. He wanted me to become a scientist just like he was, and constantly tried to push the limits of my metal capacity to make me as smart as I could be. I haven't heard from him since I've been here and I'm beginning to think he's glad I'm gone.

My life at school hadn't been much better either. It's not like I had a bunch of enemies, but I was picked on a lot and bullied because I was seen as nerd. I only had three friends, and out of those three friends there was only one person I missed the most, Jane Benson. She was the girl I'd been hoping to ask to prom, even if that had been years away. I liked her a lot, but I never got the chance to tell her. She was an extremely hyper and diabolical person. The kind that got into trouble constantly at school and seemed to enjoy going to detention. She was also nice and caring.

I miss her more then I could ever express through words. If she were here, I knew she would be the person cheering the loudest as I was forced to take part in these unholy games. She would have been all I needed to win, all I needed.

But now I have to stay away from her and my old life to keep her and the other's safe. If I went back to them now they'd be in danger of monsters and other unthinkable beings. It hurts, but I at least know she's safe now.

I _have_ made a few friends in my short time here at Camp Half-Blood.

The whole reason I was forced to come to camp was because I was attacked by a monster, a Lystragonian to be exact. It tried to kill me while I was walking home from school with Kristen Crew, one of my other friends. I probably would have delayed the need for me to come to camp even with the discovery that I wasn't normal, but when the monster attacked me, it took a swipe at Kristen and cut her deeply with it's claws on her cheek. In the end we were both saved by a kid named Nicolas Fitz, I would later learn he was a child of Ares. Because of the mist all Kristen saw was a bear, so she didn't freak out and no one accused her of being crazy, but she did have to get stitches and now will have three long scars on her face for live. When I saw her face, all stitched and red, I knew I couldn't delay the need for me to come to camp, I would have just hurt her again, or even worse, I could have hurt Jane. So I left the next morning with Nicolas. Sometimes I wonder if they miss me. I miss them. So much.

After I arrived at camp it didn't take long for my mother to claim me. She did so that night at the bonfire.

After I the whole camp discovered by parentage I was taken into the Athena cabin. Once there I settled in pretty well. The cabin was full of kids, and I couldn't help but be amazed at the difference in each of them. I knew I would fit in well. They were all smart, but while a few of them were like my father, all stuffy and scientific, a few of them shared my passion for imagination and creativity. Two of my siblings were the best though. They made my trip to camp worth it all. They almost even made me forget about Jane, but I would _never_ forget Jane.

Massie Langhorne was fiery fifteen-year-old girl with a strange outtake on life. She was one of the few in our cabin that didn't have Athena's trademark blonde hair. She was a red head and fit the part perfectly. She loved to read my writings and had a passion for poetry herself. Her gray eyes always sparkled when she read from her thick notebook of poems and prose'.

The other of my siblings I got very close to was Opal Eccles. She was so sweet and caring, Massie's opposite. She had straight, stark blonde hair and, believe it or not, _brown_ eyes. Her and I are the only kids in our cabin with eyes a color other then gray. She always helped with the younger kids and was the first in our cabin to congratulate me. She showed me around and helped me get into the routine of the Athena cabin. I loved her like a little sister, she was, after all, only thirteen years old and very petite.

While I made friends I believe will last a lifetime, I also made some enemies. Although I suppose _enemies_ might be too strong a word. Annabeth Chase and our cabin leader Malcolm Wright (A/N: I don't know his real last name. SORRY!) were a few of the most infuriating people I'll ever meet. I can't stand either one of them.

Both despised a camper here known as Percy Jackson, but he seemed pretty cool to me. A bit moody maybe, but that was to be expected after what's happened to him. I don't know the whole story, I'm sure very few do, but I know enough. It was all his bratty brothers fault, and I didn't blame him for being mad at the world. I would have been too. In fact, if I hadn't met Massie and Opal, I probably _would_ be mad at the world. Thank all that is good for their souls.

Anyway, at the moment all my sibling and I were sitting around in out cabin as Isa, the other Athena kid picked to be in the Chaos Trials, and I waited for Chaos to come and take us back to the house. I was sitting on my bed with Massie, Opal, and another kid Massie was close to named Nick Stehle. There was a tiny little stack of presents in the middle of us. Today was Massie's birthday and I was glad to be able to share it with her.

"Oh, you guys shouldn't have." Massie scolded as she playfully glared at us. Nick scoffed and leaned forward.

"Oh please, we all know your dancing on the inside. Just except the presents Langhorne and be happy." He said with a roll of his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks for calling me out on that one Stehle. You make this day so special." She said sarcastically. "At least Kellyn's here. He's a much better friend then you are. You're just mean."

"Aw, thanks Massie." I replied with a smile.

"Yes, we all love Kellyn, don't we." Opal agreed with a laugh as she leaned on my shoulder.

"Oh please. Let's all just stop enlarging owl boy's ego. This _is_ Langhorne's day, isn't it?" Nick asked us all with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yes, it is. Come on Massie, open your presents." I encouraged with a smile as I picked mine up and held it out for her to take. But before she had a chance to, a pale hand with spindly finders grabbed it away from me. All four of our heads swerved in the direction the hand had originated from.

There stood none other than Annabeth Chase. She had a sneer on her face and her hand on her hip, the other still clutching my present.

"Can I help you?" Massie growled at her, getting up from the bed and glaring Annabeth down.

Annabeth cringed slightly, but held her ground.

"Yes you can, or rather, your friends can. Where did you get the money to buy this present?" Annabeth demanded looking straight at me.

"I, uh, I got-I mean I raised…" I struggled to make a coherent sentence. I'd used some of the money I brought with me from home, and I didn't really understand her question. Why would she ask that?

"Relax Kellyn, you don't need to answer to her." Nick told me. He then turned to Annabeth. "Why do you care? You plan on ratting him out if he had any help getting the gift from the Hermes kids? You're such a snitch! If you must know, Kellyn had money with him when he arrived here. He probably used that."

"Where's the proof?" Annabeth screeched, gaining the attention of all of our siblings. What the heck was wrong with her? 

"Why do you even care?" Opal asked with a confused face.

"Because... I don't know. I just do!" she said stomping her foot.

Isa, who was standing with some of her close friends, rolled her eyes and came up behind Annabeth.

"She's just cranky because she tried to talk with Percy earlier, but he was too busy with his new Zeus girl to even notice her." She told us with a smirk. Annabeth whirled around with a crazy look in her eyes and appeared to want to rip Isa's hair out.

"That's not true!" she shrieked.

"Sure it's not." Massie mumbled under her breath. "You have some freaky obsession with dating whoever's the most powerful at the moment. That's why you dumped Percy in the first place."

Annabeth turned back to her and probably would have slapped her, but a loud horn rang throughout the camp, making our cabin vibrate. Isa came over and quickly grabbed my arm.

"Come on, Chaos is here for us."

/

"You're kidding, right?" Waverly asked in astonishment. All of us, including Chaos, were standing in a dark room with a hologram type projection in the middle of all of us. "Are you _trying_ to kill us all?"

Chaos shifted impatiently and glared at all of us.

"This is nothing! You shouldn't be reacting this way. Besides, as I have stated before, precautions have been made to ensure your safety." He growled with a grunt.

"I know, but this is… I don't know. Complicated?" Percy said for all of us, a look of 'are you crazy?' on his face. I snickered quietly at his inability to relay his own thoughts.

I stood towards the back with Isa at me side. We were trying to act calm, but this trial greatly worried us both. It seemed so dangerous.

Right now you're all probably confused, so I'll catch you up with what's been going on.

After Chaos took us away from camp (where we all had a decent and nutritious meal) things stayed pretty slow around the house, but obviously with half bloods, things didn't stay calm very long.

Percy and his brother got into a huge verbal fight when that idiot Brian started making fun of Alexia for reasons unknown to me. Almost all of us got involved, except for my sister and I, Callista, Crater, and Hal. It was like some kind of stand off, with a visible line between the two groups and they stood with hands clenched and angry glares positioned on their enraged faces. Things got worse though when Waverly slapped Markus for slandering her mother.

After that fists were flying everywhere. I know for a fact Annie is responsible for Hadrian's broken nose and Percy's the one that gave Brian a black eye.

Once Isa, the others, and I were able to separate them and stop the fighting, we were all forced to sit through a tense silence for hours until Chaos finally came and brought us to where we are now to prepare us for the trial.

He took us to here, to the freaky dark room, and showed us a mini version of the course we would be forced to go through in a matter of minutes. The course was huge and separated into four sections: a lava and geyser strewn flat land, a thick, dark, ominous looking forest, a snow covered and icy mountain, and a swamp.

Well there you go, your all caught up now.

"That's the point, little demigod. It's _supposed _to be challenging." Chaos exclaimed with a frustrated shout. "You know what? No more talking! I'm going to give you the few directions I feel like allowing you to know, and then the trial will begin. Got it?"

Everyone nodded mutely.

"Good. Now here's what's going to happen. I will transport you all to different locations ten miles away from the goal. From there, all you have to do is maneuver your way through the four stages, with the help of others as you run into them, and get the end point. Everyone understand?" He glared at us as he spoke to us like we were kindergarteners.

"The four stages, they're like the four seasons, right?" Percy asked curiously.

Chaos nodded in relief, happy someone was making some kind of sense today.

"Yes they are, starting with summer. Good luck, my champions. May the best half-blood win!" He grinned at us encouragingly, but I saw something underneath that smile. Something sinister. The look in his eyes wasn't right either. There was a false warmth there. He seemed almost impatient and anxious.

Before I had a chance to ponder on it any more, he waved his hands and then it felt like I was being thrown backwards. The walls in the already dark room grew darker and then brightened. I landed hard on the ground and when my world stopped spinning and my vision cleared, I realized I was all alone. In the middle of a dry flatland. The trial had begun.

"Oh joy." I muttered to myself, getting up and dusting off my pants. I sighed and began walking in no specific direction.

At the moment everything seemed fine and calm, so I let my mind wander.

No one _really_ knew why Chaos suddenly returned after being dormant for thousands of years. No one knows why he's making us participate in these stupid trials either, no matter the lame excuse he gave in the beginning. Right now everything seemed pretty normal, besides the obvious, but I couldn't help but feel it was just the calm before the storm. Something was not right with that man, or god, or titan, whatever it is Chaos is. He might even be his own special type of being. I don't know and I don't care. Not every child of Athena is obsessed with knowing everything.

But I did want to know what Chaos was planning, because I didn't think it would bode well for myself and the rest of the camp, or even the gods for that matter.

I stopped suddenly, feeling a strange sense of foreboding. I hadn't been paying any attention to where I was going, which was not very smart. I was standing on bumpy ground surrounded by these hole like things with steam coming out of them.

"Oh crap." I cursed, spinning around on the spot.

The ground began to rumble and one of the holes over to my right exploded with scolding hot water. I screamed in shock and took off running before the water could hit me. As I ran more and more geysers blew up with water so hot it was boiling. Everywhere I looked seemed dangerous, so I just kept running. There seemed to be no safe routes.

I felt something hard ram into my side and I went tumbling off to the side just as the ground I had been on minutes before erupted and split in half, releasing more hot water.

I look to my right to see another participant lying by my side, panting tiredly. Eric Taylor, son of Dionysus had just possibly saved my life, or at least he kept me from feeling a lot of pain.

"Thanks." I said to him breathlessly. He smirked at me and stood up, offering me a hand.

"Your welcome. I knew you were going to need help when you shrieked like a little girl and took off like a headless chicken. I just stepped in when I needed to. I saw you a little ways back, you seemed pretty preoccupied, and I followed you. I'm surprised you didn't hear me. I'm usually as stealthy as an elephant." He told me as he hoisted me up.

"You followed me? Isn't that kind of… I don't know, creepy?" I asked out loud, blushing when he laughed.

"I guess, but this is a game. I wanted to see where you were headed. Most children of Athena are_ smart_ you know." He teased as he presumed walking. I jogged to catch up with him.

"Hey I'm smart! I was just thinking. Besides, I do know where I'm heading." I scowled at him.

"Where?"

"To the forest." I said like it was obvious. I pointed in the direction of the freaky black woods only a matter of tow miles away from me know. Eric deadpanned and looked up at the sky, probably feeling like an idiot.

"Why didn't I see that?" he asked himself.

"Like heck I know. Come on, let's go." I said, stalking off towards the Sleepy Hollow like foliage.

Eric hesitated, wondering why I was indicating for him to follow me. I sighed impatiently.

"You saved me, so now I need to repay the favor. What better way then to offer my allegiance for this challenge? Come on, Budweiser, we don't have all day of you plan on winning." I trilled, turning back on my heels and continuing to the forest. I smiled when I heard his footsteps coming after me.

/

"This place is so creepy." Eric whispered loudly, staying as close to me as I was to him.

We were about half a mile into the forest by now and could barely see a thing. There was no light filtering through the tops of the trees and we had no artificial light sources on us. There were leaves and twigs all over the ground, making our every step broadcast to anyone within a one hundred foot radius, possibly farther. Animal noises sounded all around us, causing at least one of us to whip around every few minutes.

"I couldn't agree more." I whispered back, jumping around when I heard when sounded like deranged laughing. "Do you think there's actually anything out there, or is Chaos just trying to scare us?"

"I'm not sure man," Eric said, shaking his head and making his wonky haircut look even stranger. "But either way it's freaking me out."

"You know that the entire camp is watching us right now, right?" I asked conversationally, trying to keep my mind off the darkness around me.

"Yeah, I hate it. Why does Chaos have to make this even worse then it already is?" Eric groaned, trying to distract himself too.

"You mean you don't want to be here? Like that Nike girl. Annie, I believer her name is. She's a bit strange don't you think?"

"No, I don't want to be here. Camp was fine as it was, besides O'Neil. I can't stand him. As for Freeman, she is a little strange to say the least, but aren't all half bloods?" Eric quipped back at me, an eyebrow raised amusedly.

"True." I agreed with a nod.

"Besides," Eric continued. "I can't help the feeling that something really bad is going to happen soon. Id' rather be with the others incase anything did go down."

My eyebrows drew together thoughtfully. Did Eric feel it too? Was Chaos really up to something?

"I was thinking the same th-" I stopped short when a twig snapped off to the left, both of us froze.

"It's probably just another sound is all." Eric chanted to himself, not sounding so sure. "Yeah that's right, it's just a sound." He laughed weakly.

"_Agh-ah_! _Ah ah-agh!"_ there it was again, the laughing. It sounded oddly human, but with some twist to it. It sounded so close.

Some bushed ruffled in the same direction as the twig snapping had come from.

"Dude there's something here." Eric whispered.

"I know that!" I huffed in irritation.

Eric took out two similar knives, duel knives, and held them in a fighting position, prepared for battle. I gripped the leather handle of my celestial bronze dagger tightly.

We both stood back to back, ready for anything.

_Snap! Snip! Crunch!_

The noises where everywhere now. It was driving me crazy.

"I wish it would just attack." I said to my self.

"You and me both." Eric chimed in.

_Snap! Crunch, crunch! Brsshhh! _"Ow!" a loud, very much human voice complained. Just then a large object came tumbling out of the bushes, a groaning mess. "That was not fun."

"Jackson!" Eric growled, coming over to the thing (Percy Jackson, as I now knew) and helping him up. "What in the world were you doing? You about scared the living daylights out of us!"

Percy looked up at both of us and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, but I was running from this freaky laughing noise. I was kind of having a mini panic attack and wasn't paying enough attention to where I was going." He explained, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

_Ah ah ha-agh!_ Came the same sound as before. Percy jumped us and spun around in a circle, a crazy look in his eyes.

"There it is again." He screamed in frustration.

I put a hand on his shoulder.

'We've been hearing that for a while, nothing has attacked us yet. Maybe you just need to relax." As soon as the sentence left my mouth, a bat like creature swooped down form atop a tree and knocked Eric to his knees. He let out a cry of pain and Percy yelled in terror of what stood before us.

It looked almost human. But its other features gave it away as an obvious monster. It had legs and arms just like us, but also had wings just like a bats growing grotesquely out of it's back. It had blue skin, so light it was close to being translucent, and clawed finger, curled and looking like a vultures. Its hair was white, like Annie's, but not nearly as pretty. It was dried looking and hay like. It had fangs protruding from its mouth and beady looking yellow eyes. To add to the creepy effect, it had on a white, lacey nightgown, hanging off its female like form loosely. It was ripped and dirty.

I knew the creature right away. It was an Aswang, a cross between a witch and a vampire, usually only mentioned in Filipino folklore, but it was very, very real.

_Ha ah ah agh-ah. _ It laughed at us, a delirious smile on it's twitching face. _"Looks like my nexth meal ith here!" _It, I mean she, cackled, a lisp audible in it's voice.

"Oh my gosh." Eric gasped, backing away from the site of her. Percy's face was pale and he eyed his sword, which lied on the ground a few feet away from us.

"Back away." I threatened shakily when she made a step towards us.

_Ah ha ha!_ "_You don't thcare me, thtupid halth-blood! I eat children like you for breakfast." _She shrieked, the sound making my ears feel like they were bleeding. Percy flinched, but took the opportunity to make a bad dash for his sword. The Aswang saw him move and jumped at him, but I lunged at her when I realized what she was going to do. I took a swipe at her with my dagger, getting her on the shoulder.

She screamed and tackled me, making the both of us tumble to the ground. She tried to bit me with her fangs, but Eric pried her off me before she had the change.

"Get off him!" He grunted, stabbing her in the back. The Aswang flapped out her wings to make him loose his balance, and I took the opening to latch onto her back. By that time Percy had gotten Riptide back and was by Eric's side, ready to fight.

"_Aleeki teth mhile gubon tursoama!" _The creature seemed to be calling out so someone. Cursing them maybe. I held onto its neck for dear life, the feeling of its nasty nightgown on my skin making me shutter.

"Kellyn get off it!" Percy tried to tell me as the Aswang scratched him across the cheek. Eric was recovering from a low blow to the stomach and just getting off the ground.

It jerked its head back roughly, trying to head butt me, and I went flying off, hitting the trunk of a tree.

Percy cried out in pain when the Aswang grabbed hold of his arm and twisted it at an odd angle. I sucked in a sharp breath. I heard the sound of breaking bones and reacted as if on instinct. I couldn't let her get Percy. I grabbed my dagger tighter and ran at her, digging it into her back.

_Ahhhhhh!_ She shrieked in misery, her hellish eyes falling on me before she incinerated, the hate burning inside them so strong it was as if she wanted to personally drag me to Hades.

The dust she left behind was the only reassurance I felt.

As soon as she was gone I ran to my fellow campers. Percy's arm was swelling up and looked like something from a horror movie, the bone protruding a little through his flesh. Eric was better off, with just a few bruises and deep cuts.

I looked over in the direction we had been walking before, see for once a little through the thickly entwined branches. I could just see the snow and rocky landscape of a mountain. We were almost to the third part of the trial.

I looked back at my companions with grim eyes.

"Come on guys, we need to finish this and get you some help."

**A/N: I'm sorry this is so late, but I have writers block, so sorry of this sucked. At the moment I'm feeling a bit flustered with this story. I need to recuperate and get my bearings, plan it out a little better. I already have an idea with how this will end, and an idea of what the next story will be about. It was hinted a little in this chapter. This is only part 1 of the third trial, by the way. The second part will feature Leia's POV and Waverly, Martin, and Callista will be in it too, with Percy, Kellyn, and Eric in it too obviously. Brian may make an appearance too. Sadly, the next chapter won't be up for a while . Anyway, please review, cause it helps to keep me into this story, it always helps to know what you think of the chapter, especially when I'm unsure of it. Anyway, I hope it was expectable.**


	9. Author's Note Not Abandoning!

Alright, people, I think it's about time I get back to this story. Don't you? I apologize for neglecting it for so long, but I just completely lost interest, and I'm working on a personal project. This is just an authors note, cause I have important news to tell you.

I'm going to reconstruct The Chaos Trials. It's far too complicated for me to keep writing like this. I'm going to focus more on Percy and a small, select group of people that will either be his close friends and allies, or his enemies. Everyone else will pretty much be extras to make the Chaos Trials more exciting, more full. They'll be mentioned, but not much and not in detail.

I want this story to be easy for people who haven't submitted characters to read and enjoy. That's why I'm using mostly cannon characters and a few OC's, cause I'll admit, I'm not a fan of OC's unless they're mine (I know that sounds hypocritical, byt it's the whole truth).

The story will still be right here. As in, I'm not going to start another story and label it: Chaos Trials Rewritten. I'm just going to fix up the chapters where they are and then continue once I've finished. I'll tell you now, I wont be updating too often. Like I said, I have a personal project in the works, but I need a break from that every so often. Plus, this is the only story of mine on this site I'm continuing at the moment.

Anyway, I hope I still have readers for this :P. I know I get testing when someone just up and abandons a story I love. I hope to have a new chapter up by mid-Septermber.


	10. Please Read

I regretfully inform you I am as of yet unsure if I will be continuing this work. I'm just not that into it anymore, although that may change eventually.

To anyone who actually reads this, please note that chapter 1-6 have been edited, and the continuity with the last few chapters is basically non-existant, so sorry for any confusion!

Anyway, I feel awful fro making so many promises with this story - I have learned my lesson. However, I still might try to finish, depending on my inspiration (Fell free to leave ideas if you wish to aid in sparking some) and I hope if I do indeed pick it back up again, you will all continue to read.

once again I'm dreadfully sorry! Thank you for your time :)


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